BV  4211  .B768  1917 
Brown,  Elijah  P.,  1842-1933 
Point  and  purpose  in 
preaching 


Point  and  Purpose 
in  Preaching 


By 

ELIJAH  P}  BROWN,  D.  D. 

(Ram's  Horn  Brown) 

Author  of  "  The  Real  Billy  Sunday,''  "  Lifting 

the  Latch,''  "  Rounds  in  the  Golden  Ladder,"" 

"  The  Raven  and  the   Chariot,"  etc. 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.   Revell    Company 
London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REV  ELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenu* 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Contents 

I. 

Practical  Points       .        .        .        , 

5 

II. 

Why  We  Miss  the  Bull's-Eye   . 

28 

III. 

Canes  and  Crutches   . 

'      47 

IV. 

Sermon  Preparation  . 

.      70 

V. 

The  Preacher's  Barrel 

92 

VI. 

Why  Some  Ministers  Fail 

120 

VII. 

Why  Some  Ministers  Succeed    . 

146 

VIII. 

An  Old  Testament  Preacher    . 

.     173 

PRACTICAL  POINTS 

IN  the  preparation  of  these  pages  the  aim  has 
been  to  give  that  which  would  be  practical  and 
helpful  to  the  young  minister  who  is  beginning 
to  find  out  that  he  didn't  learn  all  there  is  to  know 
from  his  theological  professor. 

No  claim  is  made  for  complete  originality  in  what 
is  given,  but  all  that  is  said  has  passed  through  the 
alembic  of  personal  experience.  Much  has  been  as- 
similated from  a  very  wide  acquaintance  and  asso- 
ciation with  many  kinds  of  preachers ;  some  has 
come  through  close  observation  and  careful  study  of 
those  who,  like  the  Master,  were  always  gladly 
heard  by  the  common  people,  and  still  more,  per- 
haps, has  come  from  reading  and  reflection. 

A  young  woman,  who  had  studied  Latin  for  a 
couple  of  weeks  and  then  stopped,  explained  that 
she  only  wanted  to  get  an  insight  into  it,  but  to 
know  anything  about  preaching  we  have  got  to  go 
very  much  deeper  than  that.  We  must  not  only  go 
at  it,  but  keep  everlastingly  at  it.  Learning  how  to 
preach  is  much  like  learning  how  to  swim.  Others 
may  tell  us  how  to  do  it,  but  the  thing  that  counts  is 
the  paddling  we  do  ourselves. 

A  man  cannot  learn  how  to  preach  by  going  to 
jchool  and  reading  books  any  more  than  he  can  learn 

5 


6  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

how  to  ride  a  bicycle  by  going  to  school  and  reading 
books.  Going  to  school  and  reading  books  will 
greatly  help  us,  if  reinforced  by  our  own  personal 
experience,  because  all  true  wisdom  has  been  hand- 
picked  from  the  tree  of  knowledge  by  somebody. 
Books  and  schools  may  supply  us  with  good  ma- 
terial for  wings,  but  we  must  do  our  own  flying. 

Books  may  tell  us  a  thousand  things  Solomon 
never  dreamed  of,  but  books  alone  never  taught  any- 
body how  to  hoe  corn,  climb  a  tree  or  preach  a  ser- 
mon. The  only  school  that  can  ever  teach  us  that 
fire  will  burn  is  the  one  that  raises  a  blister.  Schools 
can  teach  us  a  lot  of  things  about  preaching,  but 
they  cannot  make  us  preachers,  any  more  than  a 
brass  foundry  can  make  the  halo  that  makes  a  saint. 
It  takes  the  sea  to  make  a  sailor,  and  Hard  Scrabble 
Circuit  to  make  the  preacher.  But  after  having  had 
some  experience  of  our  own  we  quickly  learn  how 
to  profit  by  the  experience  of  others. 

Some  of  the  most  practical  lessons  we  have  learned 
about  preaching — outside  of  our  own  individual  efforts 
— we  have  learned  from  the  preaching  of  other 
preachers.  We  should  endeavor  to  learn  something 
about  how  preaching  should  be  done  from  every  man 
we  hear  preach,  whether  he  knows  any  more  about 
it  than  we  do  or  not.  If  he  is  a  success  we  should 
try  to  discover  why,  and  if  he  is  a  misfit  we  should 
try  just  as  hard  to  find  out  what  makes  him  so. 

If  the  preaching  secures  and  holds  our  atten- 
tion there  is  a  reason  for  it,  and  we  should  try  to 
learn  what  it  is,  and  if  it  is  not  interesting  we  should 


PHACTICAL  POINTS  7 

endeavor  to  discover  what  would  make  it  so.  If  the 
man  bores  us  we  should  study  him  all  the  more  care- 
fully, so  that  if  we  bore  people  ourselves  it  will  not 
be  in  the  same  way  he  has  tired  us. 

It  is  a  good  plan,  therefore,  to  hear  other  preachers 
as  often  as  possible,  whether  they  are  lamps,  pitchers 
or  trumpets.  Sometimes  we  may  hear  a  minister 
who  will  put  us  under  the  juniper  tree  because  he 
can  preach  so  much  better  than  we  can  ever  hope  to 
do,  but  we  will  be  just  as  certain  to  hear  others  who 
will  encourage  us  by  their  indifferent  efforts. 

Bishop  Simpson  was  saved  to  the  ministry  by  hear- 
ing  a  man  who  was  a  great  failure  as  a  preacher. 
From  the  poor  man's  poor  effort  he  learned  that  God 
can  use  a  mighty  poor  stick  when  He  has  to,  and 
this  encouraged  him  to  remain  in  the  ministry,  which 
he  had  been  thinking  of  giving  up  through  a  dis- 
couraging sense  of  his  own  inefficiency. 

It  is  doubtful  if  anything  will  add  so  much  to  the 
effectiveness  of  preaching  as  having  a  definite  object 
in  view  when  preparing  the  sermon.  A  sermon 
should  be  planned  for  a  certain  purpose  as  surely  as 
a  house  should  be  planned  for  a  certain  purpose.  No 
sensible  man  ever  thinks  of  using  a  rat-tail  file  to 
shave  with,  but  worse  blunders  are  continually  being 
made  with  sermons,  and  we  are  the  very  fellows  who 
have  sometimes  made  them. 

In  preparing  our  sermons  we  need  to  keep  well 
before  us  the  impressions  we  want  to  make  on  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  those  who  will  hear  us.  We 
should  have  clearly  in  mind  the  resolutions  we  would 


8  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

have  made,  and  the  decisions  we  would  inspire,  for 
it  is  as  necessary  to  have  an  aim  in  preaching  as  it  is 
in  shooting  squirrels.  If  the  doctors  were  as  reckless 
about  what  they  gave  their  patients  as  some  preach- 
ers are  about  what  they  give  their  congregations,  un- 
dertakers would  become  a  more  cheerful  body  of  men. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  fire  into  the  air  if  we  would 
hit  anything  on  the  ground.  David  laid  Goliath  in 
the  dust  because  he  aimed  at  his  head.  He  didn't 
throw  at  the  hill  on  which  he  stood,  and  therein  lies 
the  weakness  of  some  otherwise  excellent  preaching. 
It  doesn't  draw  a  bead  on  anything.  The  trouble  with 
some  of  our  sermons  is  that  they  are  not  expected  to 
hit  anything  this  side  of  the  moon — and  they  don't. 

When  a  ship  is  about  to  sail  for  the  other  side  of 
the  world  the  captain  picks  out  one  little  spot  on  the 
map — not  a  whole  page — and  he  sails  for  that. 
When  a  ship  sails  for  Europe  it  doesn't  sail  for 
Europe — it  sails  for  Liverpool,  but  in  our  preaching 
some  of  us  sail  for  a  whole  hemisphere. 

Peter's  preaching  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  had  re- 
markable results  because  it  had  a  definite  purpose. 
He  said — "  Ye  men  of  Israel — ye  have  done  thus  and 
so,"  and  that  kind  of  preaching  always  makes  the  fur 
fly.  This  is  what  made  Henry  Ward  Beecher  a 
great  preacher : 

"  I  had  preached  two  years  at  Lawrenceburg, 
Ind.,"  he  says  in  his  Yale  Lectures,  "  when  I  went  to 
Indianapolis.  While  there  I  was  much  discontented. 
I  had  been  discouraged  for  two  years.  I  had  ex- 
pected that  there  would  be  a  general  interest,  and 


PRACTICAL  POLS'TS  9 

especially  in  the  week  before  the  communion  season. 
In  the  West  we  had  protracted  meetings,  and  the 
people  would  come  up  to  a  high  point  of  feeling,  but 
I  could  never  get  them  beyond  that.  They  would 
come  down  again  and  there  would  be  no  conversions. 
I  said  there  was  a  reason  why  when,  the  apostles 
preached  they  succeeded,  and  I  will  find  it  out,  if  it 
is  to  be  found  out. 

**  1  took  every  single  instance  in  the  record,  where 
I  could  find  one  of  their  sermons,  analyzed  it,  and 
asked  myself — *  What  were  the  circumstances  ?  Who 
were  the  people  ?  What  did  he  do  ? '  and  I  studied 
the  sermon  until  I  got  this  idea  :  That  the  apostles 
were  accustomed  first  to  feel  for  a  ground  on  which 
the  people  and  they  stood  together,  and  a  common 
ground  where  they  could  meet.  Then  they  heaped 
up  a  large  number  of  particulars  of  knowledge,  which 
everybody  would  admit,  placed  in  a  proper  form  be- 
fore their  minds,  then  they  brought  it  to  bear  upon 
them  with  all  their  excited  heart  and  feelingo 

"  That  was  the  first  definite  idea  of  taking  aim  that 
I  had  in  my  mind.  *  Now,'  said  I,  *  I  will  make  my 
sermon  so.'  First  I  sketched  out  the  things  we  all 
know.  *  You  all  know  you  are  living  in  a  world 
perishing  under  your  feet.  You  all  know  that  the 
time  is  extremely  uncertain ;  that  you  cannot  tell 
whether  you  will  live  another  month  or  week.  You 
all  know  that  your  destiny  in  the  hfe  that  is  to  come 
depends  upon  the  character  you  are  forming  in  this 
life,'  and  in  that  way  I  went  on  with  my  *  You  all 
knows,'  until   I  had  about  forty  of  them.     Then  I 


10  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

turned  around  and  brought  it  to  bear  upon  them 
with  all  my  might,  and  seventeen  men  were  awakened 
under  that  sermon. 

"  I  never  felt  so  triumphant  in  my  life.  I  cried 
all  the  way  home.  I  said  to  myself,  '  Now  I  know 
how  to  preach.'  I  could  not  make  another  sermon 
for  a  month  that  was  good  for  anything.  I  had  used 
up  all  my  powder  and  shot  on  that  one.  But  for  the 
first  time  in  my  Hfe  I  had  got  the  idea  of  taking  aim. 
I  soon  added  to  it  the  idea  of  analyzing  the  people 
I  was  to  preach  to,  and  so  taking  aim  for  specialties. 
Of  course  this  came  gradually  and,  later,  with  grow- 
ing knowledge  and  experience." 

The  better  the  preacher  knows  the  people  to  whom 
he  is  to  preach  the  easier  it  will  be  for  him  to  have  a 
clearly  defined  purpose  in  his  preaching.  A  knowl- 
edge of  individual  needs  makes  it  easy  to  suit  the 
preaching  to  the  people  in  the  pews.  If  the  preacher 
is  a  stranger  to  those  who  make  up  his  congregation, 
then  the  better  he  knows  humanity  in  general  and 
human  nature  in  particular  the  more  helpful  he  can 
be.  It  is  a  great  waste  of  time  and  effort  to  prepare 
sermons  for  angels  that  you  expect  to  preach  to  men 
and  women. 

It  is  safe  to  take  it  for  granted  than  the  things 
known  of  one  congregation  are  in  the  main  true 
of  every  other.  There  will  always  be  some  poor  soul 
who  is  in  trouble  and  wants  to  get  out  of  it,  and  who 
may  have  come  to  that  very  meeting  hoping  to  learn 
how.  There  will  always  be  those  who  want  to  trust 
God,   and   yet  do  not  know  exactly  how  to  do  it. 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  11 

Some  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  and  hypocrites  will 
be  there,  and  so  will  the  man  who  is  hiding  his  sin. 

If  every  sermon  covered  some  of  the  things  named 
in  the  prophecy  Jesus  applied  to  Himself  at  Nazareth, 
you  can  depend  upon  it  that  somebody  in  the  meet- 
ing would  always  get  his  portion  in  due  season. 
Here  is  the  prophecy  : 

"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he 
hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor. 
He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted ;  to 
preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering 
of  sight  to  the  blind ;  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord  " 
(Luke  4:  18-19). 

It  is  the  business  of  the  sharpshooter  to  shoot  to 
kill,  and  it  ought  to  be  the  purpose  of  every  sermon 
to  in  some  way  help  answer  the  prayer,  •'  Thy  king- 
dom come;  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven,"  and  the  more  preaching  we  do  with  that 
end  clearly  in  view,  the  more  notice  our  ministry  will 
attract  in  heaven. 

In  every  congregation  there  will  be  those  who  are 
poor  in  the  true  riches ;  those  who  are  broken- 
hearted over  their  wrong-doing;  those  who  are  in 
the  captivity  of  hard  bondage  to  sin,  and  those  who 
are  spiritually  blind,  as  well  as  those  who  are  bruised 
by  what  they  have  suffered  from  transgression,  and 
that  very  hour  may  be  God's  time  for  doing  some- 
thing for  them,  so  that  it  should  not  be  hard  for  the 
preacher  to  do  something  more  than  shell  the  woods, 
even  when  preaching  to  a  strange  congregation. 


12  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

The  voice  has  so  much  to  do  with  the  effectiveness 
of  the  preaching  that  very  particular  and  constant 
attention  ought  to  be  given  to  it.  To  have  a  good 
voice  it  is  a  good  plan  to  invariably  and  continually 
use  the  strongest  tone  you  can  create.  Not  the 
loudest,  but  the  strongest.  Joke  in  it,  converse  in  it, 
shout  in  it  and  whisper  in  it.  Yes,  and  think  in  it, 
for  as  a  man  thinketh  so  is  he.  The  colloquial  ele- 
ment wears  best,  and  holds  attention  best,  because 
no  other  way  of  speaking  has  so  much  of  variety 
in  it. 

The  man  who  is  monotonous  cannot  long  be 
listened  to  with  interest,  no  matter  how  excellent  the 
subject  matter  of  his  address  may  be.  Variety  in 
tone  and  movement  are  as  necessary  in  speaking  as 
in  music.  We  all  know  how  crazing  a  tune  on  one 
string  can  be.  The  man  who  always  says  everything 
in  exactly  the  same  way  will  soon  be  without  much 
of  a  congregation  to  say  it  to. 

A  poor  voice  with  distinct  enunciation  is  more 
agreeable  and  better  understood  than  a  good  one 
without  it,  and  to  secure  such  a  voice  the  consonants 
must  be  articulated  distinctly,  but  not  to  the  neglect 
of  vowels.  The  voice  can  be  much  strengthened  by 
frequently  and  forcibly  articulating  the  vowel  sounds 
in  a  staccato  way.  Delsarte  required  his  pupils  to 
practice  daily  the  syllables  po,  la,  mo  on  every  note 
within  the  compass  of  their  voices.  I  wish  all  the 
railway  brakemen  and  some  of  the  preachers  had  to 
go  to  that  same  Po-la-mo  school. 

The  man  who  has  fallen  into  the  habit  of  preach- 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  13 

ing  as  if  he  had  a  broken  jaw  might  learn  something 
very  much  to  his  advantage  by  making  a  pilgrimage 
to  St.  Louis,  to  hear  the  man  who  calls  the  trains  in 
the  big  Union  station  there.  That  man  knows  that 
he  must  make  the  waiting  multitudes  understand 
what  he  says  or  he  will  lose  his  job,  and  so  he  takes 
pains  to  earn  his  pay. 

Articulation  may  be  much  improved  by  a  few 
minutes  practice  each  day,  in  running  over  a  sentence 
in  an  inaudible  way,  as  if  trying  to  communicate  a 
secret  by  the  motion  of  the  lips.  What  a  speaker 
needs  is  to  strengthen  his  ordinary  conversational 
voice,  without  giving  it  a  hard  firm  quality ;  that  is, 
without  destroying  its  flexibility  and  power  of 
adaptation  to  every  mood. 

At  least  two  Methodist  bishops  have  strong  voices 
that  have  been  built  up  from  weak  ones,  but  there  is 
a  vast  difference  between  them.  One  is  full  of  flex- 
ibility and  variety,  and  the  other  is  as  monotonous  as 
a  Chinese  gong.  No  man  has  discovered  the  capa- 
bilities of  his  voice  until  he  has  discovered  the 
capabilities  of  his  soul.  Ruskin  said,  "  All  the  great- 
est music  is  by  the  human  voice,  and  with  the  Greeks 
the  god  of  music  was  also  the  god  of  righteousness." 

The  preacher  ought  to  look  after  his  voice  as  care- 
fully as  the  woodman  does  after  his  axe,  or  the  barber 
after  his  razor,  or  the  farmer  after  his  plow,  for  it  is 
the  thing  upon  which  the  success  of  his  ministry  will 
largely  depend.  A  poor  voice  is  about  the  poorest 
thing  that  ever  goes  into  the  pulpit.  There  are  some 
YQic^,  tjhat  enthuse,  thrill  and  inspire,  and  there  are 


14  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

others  that  make  you  want  to  gnaw  a  file  and  flee 
to  the  wilderness. 

Wrong  breathing  makes  a  lot  of  other  things 
wrong.  No  speaker  can  speak  correctly  whose 
breathing  is  all  done  in  the  upper  part  of  his  lungs. 
The  only  correct  breathing  is  deep  abdominal  breath- 
ing. Animals  breathe  in  that  way  and  so  do  all 
young  children.  Examine  any  young  child  and  you 
will  find  that  it  is  a  deep  breather.  Indians  and  all 
other  primitive  people  breathe  in  the  same  way.  In 
our  civilization  we  bind  ourselves  up  around  the  loins 
with  our  clothing  in  such  a  way  that  the  muscles 
causing  the  breathing  become  so  weakened  that  they 
cannot  perform  their  functions,  and  the  breathing  is 
confined  to  the  upper  part  of  the  lungs. 

The  way  to  get  our  breathing  back,  as  it  was  done 
in  our  early  childhood,  is  to  exercise  the  proper 
muscles  until  they  become  strong  enough  to  do  their 
work,  when  they  will  take  it  up  and  go  on  with  it 
without  our  having  to  give  it  any  more  thought  than 
we  do  to  the  beating  of  the  heart. 

A  careful  compliance  with  the  following  will  cause 
any  one  to  breathe  correctly  in  less  than  a  week.  It 
is  the  method  by  which  breathing  is  taught  in  the 
theatrical  profession  : 

1.  Lie  down  on  your  back  and  make  yourself 
limp,  with  all  muscles  relaxed. 

2.  Put  one  hand  over  your  waist,  and  with  it  exert 
a  slight  pressure. 

3.  Pronounce  the  vowel  sounds  a,  e,  i,  o,  u  in  a 
clear  and  firm  staccato  way  against  your  hand,  as  if 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  15 

you  were  trying  to  burst  a  belt  or  lift  a  weight. 
Occasionally  substitute  for  the  vowel  sounds,  also  in 
a  staccato  way,  a-ale,  ah-arm,  aw-all,  a-at,  with  a  little 
more  force. 

Do  this  several  times  a  day,  two  or  three  minutes 
at  a  time,  without  paying  any  attention  to  your 
breathing.  Should  there  be  any  discomfort  in  your 
throat,  stop  for  the  time  being.  In  four  or  five  days 
you  will  be  astonished  to  find  you  are  breathing 
down  deep  without  an  effort. 

After  a  few  days  place  a  large  book — as  a  diction- 
ary— where  you  held  your  hand,  and  try  to  lift  it 
with  the  muscles  beneath  it  as  you  repeat  the  vowel 
sounds.  From  time  to  time  increase  the  weight  by 
adding  more  books. 

When  your  breathing  has  become  correct  you  will 
find  your  voice  very  much  strengthened,  and  its  carry- 
ing power  greatly  increased.  You  will  speak  with  a 
third  of  the  effort  previously  required.  After  the 
first  week  it  will  only  be  necessary  to  practice  the 
exercises  at  long  intervals. 

There  is  no  form  of  oratory  in  which  strong  feel- 
ing will  not  contribute  largely  to  success,  or  the  ab- 
sence of  it  prove  a  decided  drawback.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  feeling  is  therefore  important,  and  the  more 
so  as  one's  circumstances  tend  to  its  suppression. 
The  methods  of  cultivating  the  emotions  are  few,  but 
the  results  of  habitually  pursuing  them  are  sure. 

Good  authorities  recommend  the  frequent  reading 
of  the  best  pathetic  writings,  the   masterpieces  of 


16  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

emotional  oratory,  with  meditation  upon  the  most 
moving  terms  and  similes,  vividly  conceiving  the 
scenes  depicted.  To  hear  speakers  who  seem  to  feel, 
or  are  the  cause  of  feeling  in  others,  is  an  inspiration. 
No  preacher  can  long  maintain  his  hold  upon  a  people 
if  he  is  simply  entertaining,  or  even  instructive  in  his 
preaching.  He  must  be  able  at  times  to  so  stir  their 
feelings  that  they  will  be  moved  deeply. 

Closely  related  to  the  care  of  the  voice  is  the  care 
of  the  rest  of  the  man  who  does  the  preaching,  for 
the  engineer  who  runs  his  train  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  superintendent  of  the  road  must  be  as  prudent 
and  skillful  in  his  care  of  the  engine  as  he  is  in  ring- 
ing the  bell  and  blowing  the  whistle.  And  so  the 
preacher  must  not  only  learn  how  to  keep  up  steam, 
but  how  to  use  it  to  the  best  advantage. 

Sleep  before  preaching  is  beyond  all  comparison 
the  best  preparation  for  it.  A  cat-nap  of  ten  minutes 
a  little  while  before  going  to  the  pulpit  will  make 
you  feel  like  a  Hon  while  in  it.  It  is  a  good  thing  to 
disrobe  and  go  to  bed  in  the  regular  way  for  a  few 
minutes  between  services,  whether  you  sleep  or  not. 
The  mere  fact  of  undressing  and  lying  down  will 
give  you  rest  by  relieving  the  tension.  One  eminent 
preacher  told  me  that  he  had  followed  this  practice  for 
more  than  thirty  years,  and  no  matter  how  many  times 
he  had  to  speak  on  Sunday  he  went  to  every  service 
fresh.  For  the  tired  brain  worker  a  day's  lay  off  in  bed 
is  said  to  be  the  best  rest  cure  as  well  as  the  cheapest. 

We  should  not  be  so  completely  taken  up  with  the 
making  and  preaching  of  sermons  as  to  forget  that 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  17 

we  have  great  treasure  in  earthen  vessels,  and  that 
we  are  expected  to  take  good  care  of  it.  There  are 
some  sins  that  can  never  be  forgiven  in  this  world, 
and  I  don't  see  how  they  can  be  in  the  next,  and  one 
of  them  is  chronic  poor  health  that  has  been  caused 
by  chronic  neglect.  If  we  could  only  know  as  we 
are  known  some  of  us  would  probably  discover 
that  there  is  about  as  much  pure  and  undefiled  re- 
ligion in  taking  proper  care  of  our  health  as  there  is 
in  making  long  prayers  in  public. 

The  engineer  who  would  give  all  his  attention  to 
shining  up  the  nickel  plating  on  his  machinery  and 
do  nothing  to  prevent  unnecessary  friction  in  his 
engine  would  not  soon  be  promoted  for  fidelity  to 
duty,  and  yet  he  would  be  a  wise  virgin  to  the 
preacher  who  fails  to  take  proper  care  of  his  health. 
Even  if  you  have  given  your  body  to  the  Lord  to  be 
a  living  sacrifice.  He  expects  you  to  do  what  you  can 
to  keep  it  from  becoming  a  dead  one.  So  the 
preacher  should  at  least  try  to  take  as  good  care  of 
himself  as  the  old-time  circuit  rider  did  of  his  horse. 

So  let  us  straighten  up,  and  try  to  keep  ourselves 
straight,  that  we  may  be  able  to  withstand  in  the  evil 
day  when  the  deadly  microbe  sweeps  through  the 
land.  Let  us  stand,  therefore,  and  make  a  good 
fight  for  health,  and  we  will  flourish  like  a  palm  tree 
when  more  careless  preachers  begin  to  go  down. 
Let  us  gird  up  our  loins  then,  and  throw  back  our 
shoulders,  fill  our  lungs  with  air,  come  down  squarely 
on  our  heels  and  step  off  with  an  iron  determination 
to  hold  our  own. 


18  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

Shoulder  braces  may  help  us  some,  but  a  braced 
up  determination  to  keep  straight  will  help  us  more. 
Physical  discipline  is  certain  to  suggest  and  promote 
physical  self-respect.  The  attitude  of  strength  and 
dignity  will  soon  make  a  man  feel  the  way  he  looks. 
To  stiffen  the  spine  is  certain  to  strengthen  the  moral 
man.  When  Enoch  walked  with  God  you  can 
depend  upon  it  that  he  didn't  do  it  with  dragging 
feet  and  a  hanging  head. 

The  preacher  should  endeavor  by  forethought  and 
prudence  to  keep  himself  up  to  concert  pitch  in  phys- 
ical vigor,  for  the  mind  not  only  works  best  in  a 
strong  healthy  body,  but  a  rugged  appearance  is  such 
good  medicine  for  weakly  people.  If  the  preacher 
looks  strong  and  vigorous  it  puts  everything  he  says 
in  italics,  for  a  note  from  a  pipe  organ  does  more  to 
make  the  rafters  tremble  than  one  from  a  tin  whistle. 

An  old  farmer  said  of  Daniel  Webster :  "  The 
old  feller  didn't  say  much,  but  his  looks  made  every 
word  he  did  say  weigh  a  pound."  It  is  much  better 
to  use  forethought  in  preserving  the  health  while  we 
have  it,  than  it  is  to  pay  a  doctor  from  ten  cents  to 
ten  dollars  a  minute  to  try  to  get  it  back  after  it  has 
been  lost. 

It  is  a  poor  plan  to  be  all  the  time  looking  at  your 
own  tongue  and  feeling  your  own  pulse,  unless  you 
want  to  be  an  angel  prematurely,  for  if  there  is  any- 
thing in  the  law  of  suggestion,  there  is  no  surer  way 
to  become  sick  in  reality  than  to  imagine  you  are  ill. 
When  you  feel  well  notice  it,  rejoice  in  it,  and  like 
the  glad  woman  who  found  her  lost  piece  of  silver, 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  19 

have  your  friends  and  neighbors  rejoice  with  you, 
but  when  you  feel  bad  don't  pay  much  attention  to 
it  or  say  anything  about  it.  Keep  yourself  cheerful 
by  thinking  of  how  much  you  have  to  be  thankful 
for,  and  the  first  thing  you  know  you  will  feel  as  if 
you  could  jump  over  a  house. 

So  don't  worry,  but  look  on  the  bright  side,  and 
learn  how  to  find  it  even  at  midnight.  Eat  whole- 
some food,  have  faith  in  God,  and  sleep  with  your 
windows  open  toward  Jerusalem  every  night  in  the 
year,  and  by  some  hook  or  crook  get  the  janitor  to 
change  the  air  in  the  church  at  least  every  fall  and 
spring.  Be  as  regular  in  your  habits  as  the  ticking 
of  a  clock,  and  avoid  the  pace  that  kills.  Keep 
yourself  young  by  keeping  yourself  growing,  for  no 
man  can  become  old  until  he  begins  to  dry  up  and 
go  to  seed.  As  John  D's  pastor  wrote  him  on  his 
seventieth  birthday  : 

*'  Cling  to  the  habit  of  still  being  young. 
Cultivate  leisure  without  being  lazy. 
Garner  all  joys  the  poets  have  sung, 

And  prove  every  year  that  Dr.  Osier  is  crazy." 

No  matter  how  you  feel ;  keep  on  saying  with 
grand  old  Caleb  :  "  1  am  as  strong  this  day  as  I  was. 
As  my  strength  was  even  so  is  my  strength  now,  for 
war,  both  to  go  out  and  to  come  in,"  and  prove  it  by 
asking  for  an  appointment  where  the  giants  are. 

When  it  comes  to  the  delivery  of  his  sermon  the 
preacher  should  summon  all  his  will  power  to  bear 
upon  the  task  before  him,  and  determine  to  do  hig 


20  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

prayerful  best  toward  accomplishing  the  purpose 
for  which  he  is  there.  Nothing  will  do  more  to 
bring  success  than  a  fixed  determination  to  succeed. 
As  you  begin,  look  bright  and  interested,  whether 
you  feel  that  way  or  not.  Let  your  attitude  be  erect 
and  your  manner  confident,  as  if  you  expected  to 
accomplish  something. 

Speak  in  an  earnest  whole-hearted  tone,  slowly  at 
first,  but  very  distinctly,  and  not  loud  but  clear. 
Look  at  those  nearest  to  you,  and  address  your  open- 
ing remarks  to  them.  This  will  keep  you  from  strik- 
ing too  high  a  key,  as  might  be  the  case  if  you  looked 
at  those  farthest  away.  In  beginning,  it  is  well  also 
not  to  look  at  blank  faces,  or  they  will  make  you 
feel  blank.  Look  rather  at  the  faces  that  are  bright 
with  intelligence  and  full  of  interest,  and  they  will 
stimulate  you  to  speak  with  animation,  without  which 
your  preaching  will  fall  dead.  Life  begets  life.  Look 
your  congregation  in  the  eye.  Do  not  look  at  the 
floor  or  the  ceiling. 

Keep  yourself  wide  awake  physically  if  you  would 
arouse  people  intellectually  and  spiritually.  Try  to 
be  interesting  from  the  very  beginning,  by  having 
something  interesting  to  say,  and  saying  it  in  an 
interesting  way.  Great  things  are  done  when  you 
awaken  a  lively  interest  in  the  very  first  breath.  If 
you  are  a  live  wire  don't  let  the  people  be  too  long 
in  finding  it  out. 

The  preacher  should  handle  the  Bible  in  public  as 
if  he  had  a  love  and  reverence  for  it.  Spiritual  peo- 
ple  are  sometimes  pained  by  the  reckless  way  in 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  21 

which  the  minister  handles  the  Bible  in  the  pulpit. 
He  grabs  it  up  as  if  it  were  not  of  much  importance, 
reads  his  text  from  it,  then  shuts  it  abruptly  and 
throws  it  on  the  pulpit  desk  with  an  air  that  seems 
to  say  :  "  There  !     That's  all  I  want  of  You." 

Sometimes  in  beginning  an  address  for  which 
ample  preparation  has  been  made,  the  mind  will 
suddenly  become  a  blank,  and  the  speaker  will  be 
unable  to  remember  anything  he  meant  to  say. 
Where  disease  and  utter  exhaustion  is  not  the  cause 
of  this  do  not  aggravate  the  matter  by  becoming 
frightened,  but  maintain  your  presence  of  mind,  and 
say  something  else  that  will  not  be  out  of  place.  You 
will  generally  be  astonished  at  the  promptness  with 
which  your  scattered  thoughts  will  return,  and  the 
clearness  with  which  they  will  present  themselves. 

Should  you  at  any  time  find  yourself  speaking  in 
a  high  key,  introduce  a  brief  quotation.  This  makes 
it  natural  to  lower  the  pitch,  and  in  the  same  tone 
you  can  add  a  comment  on  the  quotation  and  retain 
the  lower  key.  It  is  not  difficult  to  master  this 
common  defect  if  once  the  attention  is  fixed  upon  it 
with  determination.  Should  other  methods  fail  in- 
troduce an  anecdote,  and  this  will  compel  it.  Be 
careful  not  to  destroy  the  effect  of  an  illustration  by 
the  way  in  which  you  give  it.  Don't  preach  it  or 
declaim  it.     Tell  it. 

In  talking  to  children  use  words  and  figures  they 
can  understand,  and  talk  about  things  they  would 
hke  to  hear,  or  need  to  know  or  feel.  Use  plenty  of 
imagery  and  illustration,  for   children  think   in  pic- 


22  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

tures.  In  talking  with  little  folks  try  to  draw  them 
out  to  express  their  own  thoughts  and  ideas,  and 
you  will  learn  something  worth  knowing.  Children 
think  much,  and  are  full  of  ideas,  because  there  is  so 
much  around  them  that  is  strange  and  wonderful.  I 
can  remember  thoughts  I  had  when  I  was  five  years 
old. 

Children  are  great  builders,  but  they  cannot  create 
anything.  They  are  incessantly  building  out  of  the 
scanty  material  they  have  on  hand.  A  child  can 
take  a  dog  and  a  horse  and  a  cow  and  from  them 
make  animals  enough  to  fill  Noah's  ark,  but  it  must 
have  the  dog,  the  horse  and  the  cow  to  make  them 
out  of.  Whenever  a  new  thought  is  dropped  into 
the  mind  of  a  child,  you  have  an  illustration  of  Adam 
naming  the  animals,  for  every  new  thought  requires 
the  making  of  a  new  symbol. 

All  primitive  words  are  of  necessity  derived  from 
things  familiar  in  daily  hfe,  just  as  the  horn  of  the 
wild  animal  would  naturally  become  a  symbol  for 
power,  and  the  wing  of  the  mother  bird  would  mean 
protection.  Just  as  the  baby  begins  its  language,  so 
all  language  had  its  beginning,  from  Adam  down  to 
John  Smith.  As  soon  as  a  new  thought  enters  the 
mind  of  the  little  one  it  begins  to  build  a  new  house 
to  shelter  it,  but  it  has  to  make  it  out  of  the  word 
stuff  it  has  on  hand,  somewhat  as  new  clothes  are 
made  for  the  boy  out  of  his  father's  old  ones. 

This  shows  why  we  ought  to  take  great  pains  to 
be  clearly  understood  when  we  talk  to  children,  for 
if  we  are  not  careful  we  may  give  them  distorted 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  23 

notions  that  will  cling  to  them  for  life,  just  as  a 
wrong  idea  of  an  animal  would  have  made  Adam 
give  it  a  wrong  name. 

When  a  little  boy  first  heard  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden  he  had  never  seen  anything  bearing  the  name 
of  garden  except  a  truck  patch,  and  it  was  ever 
afterward  hard  for  him  to  think  of  Adam  without 
seeing  him  with  a  hoe  in  his  hand.  When  he  thought 
of  original  sin  he  would  also  think  of  cabbage  and 
potatoes,  and  weeds  and  bugs  and  purslane  were 
always  mixed  up  with  Adam's  paradise.  It  makes 
many  things  wrong  for  a  child  to  have  its  mind 
thrown  out  of  focus  by  wrong  notions  of  new  things. 

As  two  little  girls  walked  home  from  Sunday- 
school  one  morning,  when  the  lesson  had  been  on 
the  soul,  one  said  to  the  other,  "  Mary,  will  we  take 
our  clothes  to  heaven  with  us  when  we  die  ?  "  "  No," 
said  Mary,  "  we  won't  take  nothing  but  our  insides  ! " 

What  a  dreadful  idea,  and  all  because  somebody 
didn't  put  clear  glass  in  the  window.  I  have  heard 
preachers  talk  to  little  children  in  a  Sunday-school  as 
if  they  thought  every  child  there  had  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon.  Such  men  never  seem  to  know  that  lambs 
don't  stand  on  their  hind  legs  to  eat.  Every  one 
who  talks  to  little  children  ought  to  know  that  little 
words  were  made  for  little  people. 

I  doubt  if  there  is  any  other  one  thing  that  has  so 
much  to  do  with  the  success  of  public  speaking  as  a 
good  bright  light,  properly  placed.  The  speaker 
ought  to  be  able  to  look  into  the  eyes  of  everybody 
in  his  congregation,  and  every  one  ought  to  be  able 


24  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

to  look  into  his.  There  is  something  that  goes 
through  the  eye  that  cannot  go  in  any  other  way. 
And  then,  too,  a  good  bright  hght  has  the  same  effect 
upon  the  spirits  of  people  that  sunshine  has,  while  a 
poor  light  is  as  depressing  as  bad  weather.  Dingy 
smoky  lamps  invite  failure. 

The  next  important  thing  is  pure  air.  If  we  could 
always  have  good  air  in  which  to  preach,  we  would 
all  do  better  preaching.  Very  few  janitors  know  the 
difference  between  ventilation  and  temperature.  If 
you  say  anything  about  the  air  being  bad  they  will 
go  and  look  at  the  thermometer.  They  think  bad 
air  is  always  hot,  and  it  never  gets  into  their  heads  that 
air  can  be  bad  and  cold  at  the  same  time.  There  are 
too  many  churches  in  which  the  same  air  is  breathed 
over  and  over  all  winter,  and  then  they  wonder  what 
is  the  matter  with  the  preacher. 

Before  the  millennium  can  come  there  will  have  to 
be  schools  in  which  janitors  and  railway  porters  and 
brakemen  shall  be  compelled  to  learn  something 
about  ventilation,  and  there  are  also  plenty  of  archi- 
tects and  some  preachers  who  ought  to  be  sent  to 
that  same  school.  In  the  building  of  churches  too 
little  thought  is  given  to  the  question  of  ventilation. 
Too  many  otherwise  good  buildings  are  so  con- 
structed that  the  air  could  never  be  changed  without 
the  help  of  a  cyclone. 

If  disturbances  occur,  as  the  crying  of  a  babe  or 
the  running  about  of  a  dog,  do  not  look  in  that  di- 
rection, or  it  will  divert  attention  from  you.  At  such 
times  look  at  the  most  attentive  faces  you  can  see, 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  25 

and  their  interest  will  pull  you  through.  It  never 
does  any  good  to  call  attention  to  an  annoyance,  but 
generally  makes  it  worse.  If  you  make  a  bad  break 
in  your  speech  don't  stop  to  correct  it,  but  push  on 
quickly  and  few  will  notice  it. 

If  a  deaf  person  is  placed  close  in  front  of  you 
with  the  request  that  you  will  make  him  hear,  do 
not  be  led  into  straining  yourself  in  trying  to  do  it. 
You  are  there  to  preach  to  those  who  have  ears  to 
hear.  So  speak  no  louder  than  is  natural.  It  is 
better  that  one  should  not  hear  than  that  all  should 
have  to  listen  with  discomfort,  and  that  you  should 
wear  yourself  out.  I  have  seen  good  sermons  spoiled 
for  those  who  could  hear  by  the  preaching  all  being 
done  for  a  man  who  couldn't  hear  thunder. 

Do  not  tire  out  your  congregation  before  you 
begin  by  going  over  the  announcements  and  church 
notices  until  they  have  become  like  quail  in  the  wil- 
derness to  everybody  in  the  house.  I  have  known 
preachers  to  do  this  even  where  they  had  printed 
bulletins. 

Don't  fall  into  the  habit  of  leaning  over  or  against 
the  pulpit  desk,  with  legs  crossed,  when  making  an- 
nouncements or  beginning  your  sermon.  It  will  put 
a  wall  between  you  and  some  of  the  pews.  When 
sitting  in  the  pulpit,  do  that.  Don't  get  down  on 
your  shoulder  blades. 

Never  drink  water  while  speaking.  It  not  only 
aggravates  the  thirst,  but  is  a  bad  nervous  habit  to 
fall  into.  If  much  indulged  in  it  creates  uneasiness 
in  the  congregation,  for  any  appearance  of  discom- 


26  PRACTICAL  POINTS 

fort  in  the  speaker  makes  those  who  hear  him  ill  at 
ease.  Looking  at  your  watch  frequently  should  also 
be  avoided  for  the  same  reasons. 

In  speaking  to  a  large  audience  keep  your  voice 
directed  straight  toward  the  center,  or  your  address 
will  be  a  disappointment,  for  the  reason  that  much  of 
it  will  not  be  heard.  Do  not  keep  your  head  turning 
from  side  to  side,  and  never  turn  to  address  those 
behind  you.  Talk  to  the  center  of  the  house,  and 
all  will  hear  you.  I  once  heard  an  eminent  man  in 
a  large  auditorium,  and  never  was  more  disappointed. 
Although  I  had  a  seat  well  forward  I  seldom  heard  a 
complete  sentence.  He  would  begin  looking  toward 
me,  and  finish  with  his  face  turned  in  the  opposite 
direction.  I  could  not  understand  a  word  when  his 
face  was  from  me,  and  wherever  I  looked  I  could  see 
faces  full  of  disappointment. 

Little  words  are  better  than  big  ones  if  they  ex- 
press the  idea.  It  is  a  waste  of  effort  to  take  a 
bushel  basket  to  carry  home  a  pound  of  butter.  Try 
to  learn  the  cause  of  your  failures,  for  you  will  never 
hit  the  bull's-eye  unless  you  can  find  out  what  makes 
you  miss  it.  Write  for  ideas.  Shaking  a  tree  will 
sooner  or  later  bring  down  an  apple  if  it  has  any  on  it. 
Read  books  that  stir  up  ideas  in  you,  and  keep  your 
thinker  wound  up  and  going.  If  you  are  disturbed 
by  an  unsympathetic  or  quizzical  face  look  away  from 
it  to  a  friendly  one. 

Encourage  your  wife  to  tell  you  when  you  are  be- 
ginning to  fall  into  preacher  ways,  mannerisms  and 
faults  of  speech,  and  don't  turn  blue  around  the  ears 


PRACTICAL  POINTS  27 

when  she  does  it.    Never  be  disheartened  by  apparent 
failure. 

The  preacher  ought  not  to  be  any  more  afraid  of 
proper  criticism  than  EUjah  was  of  Ahab.  We 
would  all  be  better  preachers  if  we  could  occasionally 
have  an  X-ray  turned  on  ourselves,  our  motives  and 
the  work  we  do.  If  we  would  lead  others  we  must 
not  be  afraid  to  step  off  alone.  We  should  get  all 
the  lessons  and  hints  we  can  from  criticism  whenever 
it  comes,  and  whenever  we  discover  a  real  fault  we 
should  try  to  hit  it  squarely  between  the  eyes.  Some 
preachers  are  kept  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder  mainly 
because  they  are  so  thin  skinned  on  this  Hne. 

The  fear  of  criticism  has  made  many  a  man  live 
on  lower  ground  than  the  Lord  wanted  him  to  oc- 
cupy. An  honest  critic  is  a  faithful  friend,  and 
happy  is  the  man  who  has  one.  For  some  troubles 
the  surgeon's  knife  is  much  better  than  a  bread  and 
milk  poultice.  Paul  was  half-killed  a  good  many  times 
before  he  could  say,  "  I  have  fought  a  good  fight." 

If  the  key-note  of  a  preacher's  hfe  is,  "  Thy  will  be 
done,"  no  criticism  can  hurt  him,  and  if  his  mind  is 
wholly  given  to  bringing  the  water  of  life  to  those 
who  need  it,  it  will  be  all  the  same  whether  he  is  a 
pewter  mug  or  a  silver  pitcher.  When  it  comes  to  a 
question  of  usefulness  the  wooden  bread  plate  has 
the  souvenir  teaspoon  beaten  to  a  frazzle.  Our  suc- 
cess may  not  come  just  when  we  expect  it,  nor  in 
the  way  we  expect  it,  but  it  will  come  if  we  deserve 
it,  and  every  good  lick  we  strike  brings  it  nearer  and 
makes  it  surer. 


II 

WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

'<  TF  you  can't  find  out  what  makes  you  miss, 
I     you  will  never  hit  the  bull's-eye,"  was  posted 

A  in  big  letters  on  the  wall  of  a  shooting  gallery, 
and  if  Solomon  ever  said  anything  more  true  I  have 
been  unable  to  find  the  chapter  and  verse  in  which  it 
is  recorded. 

The  man  who  not  only  falls  down-stairs,  but  keeps 
on  falling  down-stairs  every  time  he  starts  for  the  top 
of  the  house,  has  something  radically  wrong  with 
either  his  head  or  his  heels,  and  if  he  cannot  find 
out  what  it  is  that  makes  him  stumble,  he  might  as 
well  make  up  his  mind  to  stay  in  the  cellar,  and  the 
sooner  he  comes  to  that  conclusion  the  fewer  black 
and  blue  places  he  will  have  on  him. 

There  is  no  trouble  about  finding  out  what  makes 
other  men  fail.  We  are  all  past  masters  at  doing 
that.  The  first  roustabout  you  see  cleaning  a  street 
can  tell  you  why  this  or  that  man  was  not  a  brilliant 
success  as  mayor  of  the  city.  There  is  not  one  of 
us  who  cannot  talk  for  a  week  on  the  mistakes  of 
Moses  and  other  men,  big  and  little,  and  there  never 
was  a  man  in  the  pew  who  didn't  know  to  a  dot  just 
what  ailed  the  preacher. 

There  has  probably  never  been  a  lion  that  some 
mouse  did  not  criticize.     It  is  so  easy  to  tell  all  about 

28 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE      29 

the  size  and  twist  of  the  mote  in  our  brother's  eye, 
but  when  it  comes  to  knowing  with  mathematical 
precision  the  exact  curvature  of  the  beam  in  our  own 
eye — there's  the  rub.  The  Eskimos  can  see  the 
moons  of  Jupiter  with  the  naked  eye,  but  they  eat 
pecks  of  dirt  without  even  knowing  it. 

Many  a  church  pillar  who  can  see  big  spots  on 
his  preacher  firmly  believes  that  standing  on  the 
bank  and  throwing  a  straw  to  a  drowning  man  is 
missionary  work.  It  is  so  easy  to  tell  why  John 
Smith  can't  knock  the  persimmon,  but  so  difficult  to 
explain  to  the  court  why  we  can't  do  it.  The  great- 
est of  all  conundrums  is  not,  "  Who  is  the  smallest 
man  mentioned  in  the  Bible  ?  "  but  "  Why  can't  I  hit 
the  bull's-eye  ?  " 

Why  is  it  that  Jones  always  reaches  the  top  of  the 
hill  with  the  certainty  of  a  woman  getting  to  the 
bargain  counter,  while  I  am  as  sure  to  find  myself  on 
the  flat  of  my  back,  with  my  feet  up  in  the  air,  as  a 
turkey  is  to  lose  its  head  about  Thanksgiving  time  ? 
These  are  perplexities  in  comparison  with  which  a 
fog  bank  would  look  like  a  plate  glass  window  to  the 
man  who  has  a  thinker  thai:  he  keeps  wound  up  and 
going,  and  over  which  he  will  scratch  his  head  long 
after  his  hair  has  ceased  to  curl. 

I  know  more  in  a  minute  than  Jones  does  in  an 
hour  and  a  half,  and  to  every  talent  he  has  I  have  at 
least  two  and  a  quarter,  and  yet  he  gets  there  with 
the  goods  before  I  can  load  my  wheelbarrow,  and 
now  what  I  want  to  know  is,  <«  What  is  the  matter 
with  me  ?  " 


30      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

Such  questions  as  this  some  of  us  often  ask  the 
man  whose  face  we  see  in  the  glass  when  we  shave, 
and  yet  from  the  flops  we  keep  on  getting  whenever 
we  try  to  climb  the  slippery  hill,  we  are  not  certain 
we  have  ever  found  the  right  answer. 

There  seems  to  be  little  doubt,  then,  that  here  is  a 
long  felt  want,  into  which  somebody  ought  to  dump 
a  cart-load  or  two  of  practical  wisdom,  for  the  sake 
of  the  folks  who  would  hke  to  at  least  come  within 
winking  distance  of  that  bull's-eye,  and  that  is  why  I 
am  going  to  try  to  do  something  that  will  either  kill 
or  cure,  as  the  young  doctor  did  when  he  wrote  the 
prescription  that  fixed  the  patient. 

If  I  can  help  John  Smith  to  find  out  why  he  can't 
make  the  bell  ring,  perhaps  he  may  find  it  less  diffi- 
cult to  point  his  gun  in  the  right  direction,  and  I  may 
at  the  same  time  do  a  piece  of  good  Samaritan  work 
for  his  poor  people. 

As  a  feeler,  therefore,  for  the  pulse  of  the  patient, 
I  will  begin  with  a  little  fable  of  my  own  construction 
that  I  have  conceit  enough  to  believe  will  do  better 
than  anything  I  might  dig  up  from  ancient  history  : 

"  There  was  once  a  bright  young  green  grasshop- 
per, sitting  on  a  big  sunflower  and  watching  some 
crickets  on  the  ground,  when  he  suddenly  swelled  up 
with  pride,  and  began  to  sing,  *  Why,  I'm  the  greatest 
creature  living  !  I'm  the  greatest  creature  living ! ' 
and  with  that  he  gave  a  jump  he  thought  would  turn 
the  whole  world  upside  down  with  envy,  and  where 
do  you  think  he  landed  ? 

"  Just  then  a  discouraged  looking  old  hen  ran  up 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL*S-EYE     31 

to  a  sleek  looking  turkey  gobbler,  and  in  a  tone  of 
great  anxiety  said,  '  Sir,  did  you  see  a  big  fat  grass- 
hopper pass  this  way  ? '  and  he  repHed  with  a  gulp, 
*  No  ;  he  stopped  ! '  and  as  that  poor  little  grass- 
hopper tried  to  get  into  a  comfortable  position  in 
that  gobbler's  crowded  crop,  he  said  to  himself, 
'  What  a  blithering  little  fool  I  was.  Why  didn't  I 
look  before  I  jumped  ? '  " 

And  in  this  little  parable  we  have  a  luminous  page 
from  the  history  of  many  lives.  So  many  people 
leap  first,  and  then  in  a  daze  wonder  where  they  have 
landed,  like  a  man  who  at  a  ball  game  was  struck  in 
the  head  by  the  ball  and  knocked  senseless.  As  he 
came  to  he  said  : 

"  What  hit  me  ?  " 

"  A  foul,"  they  told  him. 

*'  Gee  !  "  said  he.     "  I  thought  it  was  a  mule  ! " 

The  difference  between  a  wise  man  and  a  fool  is 
that  the  wise  man  did  his  thinking  yesterday,  and 
the  fool  puts  his  off  until  day  after  to-morrow.  If 
foresight  had  always  been  as  good  as  hindsight  the 
millennium  would  have  been  here  long  ago.  Much 
of  the  trouble  there  is  in  the  world  to-day  has  been 
caused  by  the  man  who  is  always  biting  off  more 
than  he  can  chew. 

Mr.  Grasshopper  was  prematurely  snuffed  out  be- 
cause he  was  not  in  earnest.  He  was  dawdling  idly 
on  the  big  sunflower,  on  which  he  landed  by  accident 
and  left  by  caprice,  and  was  so  taken  up  with  the 
affairs  of  his  neighbors  that  he  wholly  neglected  his 
own.     He   had   no   business   on  hand;   no  definite 


32      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULUS-EYE 

object  in  view.  He  was  not  trying  to  do  anything 
or  go  anywhere,  and  so  was  as  much  of  a  loafer  as 
anybody  you  ever  saw  cutting  splinters  on  a  store 
box. 

Earnestness  always  does  something  and  tries  to 
get  somewhere,  whether  it  is  big  or  little ;  whether 
it  has  one  talent  or  ten,  and  whether  it  wears  hodden 
gray  or  royal  purple.  It  nails  its  flag  to  the  mast, 
and  does  it  with  nails  that  clinch.  It  is  back  of  every 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  leads  in  every 
Revolutionary  War. 

Look  back  over  history,  and  see  how  the  pioneers 
in  every  good  thing  have  always  been  men  who  had 
iron  in  their  blood.  Men  who  had  the  determina- 
tion and  the  courage  to  do  and  dare  for  the  thing 
that  was  right,  and  note  also  that  men  with  yarn 
backbones  are  never  found  occupying  front  seats  in 
any  hall  of  fame. 

The  man  who  is  in  earnest  can  no  more  be  kept 
back  than  the  days  of  the  week  can  be  kept  back, 
for  everybody  makes  way  for  the  man  who  knows 
where  he  is  going,  and  steps  off  as  if  he  meant  to 
get  there. 

'  You  can't  hold  the  earnest  man  back  by  putting 
difficulties  and  discouragements  in  his  way.  You 
may  knock  him  down,  but  you  can't  keep  him  down, 
for  the  next  thing  you  know  he  will  be  toeing  the 
scratch  and  saying : 

"  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this  line  if  it  takes 
all  summer." 

Earnestness  is  like  a  prairie  on  fire,  for  it  makes 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULUS-EYE     33 

eveiything  from  a  grizzly  bear  to  a  chipmunk  get  out 
of  the  way.  Earnestness  takes  up  the  jaw-bone  of 
an  ass  (when  nothing  better  offers)  and  goes  at  the 
Phihstines  without  waiting  to  count  them.  Yes, 
earnestness  does  something,  and  it  keeps  on  doing 
something  even  when  its  hair  is  gray,  hke  grand  old 
Caleb,  who  never  stopped  saying  : 

"  I  am  as  strong  this  day  as  I  was  for  war ;  both 
to  go  out  and  to  come  in  ! " 

An  earnest  man  will  get  there — and  get  there  to 
stay — while  his  half-hearted  brother  is  putting  on  his 
mittens.  It  was  said  of  Richard  Baxter  that  he 
would  set  the  world  on  fire  before  anybody  else  could 
find  a  match.  Somebody  said  to  a  man  who  was  too 
Hfeless  and  listless  to  shell  corn, ''  How  in  the  world 
can  you  tell  that  you  are  alive  ?  "  and  he  said,  **  I  sit 
down  on  a  tack." 

I  have  seen  a  few  preachers  in  my  travels  who 
made  me  think  of  that  man. 

There  are  men  who  get  on  the  other  side  of  the 
township  from  the  bull's-eye  mainly  through  lack  of 
animation  in  the  pulpit.  They  are  good  men  and 
clear  thinkers,  but  they  seem  to  have  a  punctured 
tire  all  the  time.  I  don't  believe  there  would  be  so 
much  unbroken  slumber  in  some  churches  to-day  if 
the  man  in  the  pulpit  didn't  do  so  much  snoring  in 
his  sermons. 

When  an  earnest  man  looks  toward  heaven  the 
angels  open  the  windows,  and  this  is  true  in  every- 
thing from  plowing  corn  to  preaching.  One  thing  I 
hke  about  a  bantam  rooster  is  that  you  don't  need 


34      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

an  alarm  clock  to  get  you  up  in  the  morning,  if  you  live 
in  his  neighborhood,  for  what  he  lacks  in  size  he 
more  than  makes  up  for  in  crow,  and  he  has  the 
spurs  to  back  up  his  crow.  Go  to  him,  thou  lym- 
phatic preacher,  consider  his  ways  and  be  wise,  and 
the  first  thing  you  know  your  church  will  raise  your 
salary. 

A  very  positive  cause  for  the  undoing  of  Mr. 
Grasshopper  was  the  big  sunflower  on  which  we  find 
him.  Had  he  been  on  some  lowly  sweet-potato  vine 
his  career  might  have  been  longer  and  his  story  more 
interesting.  He  didn't  deserve  any  credit  for  being 
on  the  big  sunflower.  He  didn't  climb  there,  but  just 
flopped  to  that  high  place  by  accident,  and  it  is  our 
climbing  alone  that  counts,  not  our  flopping. 

Many  people  who  miss  the  bull's-eye  take  great 
credit  to  themselves  because  they  didn't  miss  the  big 
sunflower,  but  no  man  deserves  any  credit  for  being 
in  any  kind  of  a  high  place  to  which  he  did  not 
climb. 

One  man  is  no  more  entitled  to  honor  because  he 
has  blue  blood  in  his  veins  than  another  is  to  dis- 
honor because  he  has  red  hair  on  his  head.  In 
neither  of  these  things  did  he  have  the  casting  vote, 
for  they  were  decided  by  a  big  majority  long  before 
he  got  to  the  polls. 

There  are  people  who  think  that  because  they 
were  born  with  a  gold  spoon  in  their  mouths  they 
are  the  whole  jewelry  store,  and  they  swell  up  like  a 
robin  when  a  sparrow  comes  his  way.  Their  father 
was  Judge  This,  or  Colonel  That,  or  Dr.  Something 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE      35 

Else,  but  when  the  fire  comes  that  will  make  short 
work  of  all  the  hay  and  stubble,  they  will  find  out 
that  the  thing  that  made  them  feel  so  chesty  was  all 
sunflower. 

Others  have  found  themselves  lifted  high  by  rich 
endowment  in  native  ability,  and  that  was  the  big 
sunflower  that  made  them  too  top-heavy  to  draw  a 
bead  on  the  bull's-eye.  They  could  do  hard  things 
as  easily  as  falling  off  a  log,  and  so  they  didn't  think 
it  worth  while  to  make  anything  like  a  strenuous 
effort  for  any  kind  of  a  task.  They  just  trusted  to 
luck,  as  the  preacher  did  when  his  sermons  blew  out 
of  the  window. 

Somebody  has  said  that  more  men  fail  through 
lack  of  push  than  through  lack  of  talent,  a  statement 
that  is  undoubtedly  true,  for  if  the  truth  were  known 
it  would  probably  be  found  that  people  of  medium 
gifts  average  up  better  in  the  matter  of  accomplish- 
ment than  those  of  great  ability,  for  what  can  be 
easily  done  is  often  neglected  altogether,  while  the 
man  who  has  to  work  his  passage  or  walk  generally 
manages  to  get  there. 

The  world  is  full  of  failures  because  so  many  able 
people  drift  along  without  incentive  or  aim,  like  a 
boy  going  to  have  a  tooth  pulled,  content  with 
simply  getting  along  in  the  easiest  way  for  the  time 
being,  while  some  near-sighted  fellow  who  hardly 
knew  enough  to  go  in  out  of  the  rain  walks  away 
with  the  first  prize. 

It  is  the  narrow-chested  young  man,  with  pale 
blue  eyes,  who  will  be  most  likely  to  live  a  hundred 


36      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

years,  and  not  the  sturdy  black-eyed  fellow  who  can 
lift  a  barrel  of  flour.  It  was  Winship,  the  delicate, 
saffron-haired  little  boy  that  the  big  fellows  bull- 
dozed, who  became  the  strongest  man,  not  the  young 
Samson  that  he  was  so  afraid  of. 

It  takes  an  immense  amount  of  hard  picking  to 
tunnel  the  mountain,  but  when  it  is  done  we  may  fly 
on  the  wings  of  the  wind  ever  afterward.  The  man 
who  can  see  an  inch  around  the  corner  will  not  waste 
much  time  in  looking  for  an  easy  place,  but  will  push 
the  hair  back  out  of  his  eyes  and  go  at  something 
that  is  avoided  by  others  because  it  is  so  hard  to  do, 
and  he  will  keep  on  pegging  away  at  it  until  he  can 
do  it  easily. 

If  everybody  could  jump  over  the  moon  the  old 
cow  would  not  have  been  praised  sky-high  for  doing 
it,  and  gold  wouldn't  be  so  precious  if  it  were  no 
harder  to  mine  than  it  is  to  dig  potatoes.  Many  a 
man  has  failed  to  hit  the  bull's-eye  because  he  found 
it  easier  to  sit  in  the  shade  and  fan  himself  than  to 
go  out  in  the  hot  sun  and  make  the  dust  fly. 

Being  born  of  rich  parents,  and  so  never  knowing 
the  spur  of  necessity,  has  been  the  big  sunflower 
from  which  many  have  gone  aimlessly  into  lives  that 
ended  in  disappointment  and  failure  for  themselves, 
and  shame  and  tears  for  those  who  loved  them,  for 
the  world  has  gained  more  from  the  hoe-handle  than 
it  has  from  the  silver  butter-dish.  It  seldom  happens 
that  the  man  who  is  born  with  a  gold  spoon  in  his 
mouth  ever  sets  the  world  on  fire  as  a  goldsmith. 

Had  Lincoln  been  the  son  of  a  nabob,  he  might 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE     37 

not  have  travelled  any  farther  along  on  the  road  to 
fame  than  the  first  mile-post.  It  is  the  meek  who 
inherit  the  earth,  not  the  high  steppers.  The  lions 
and  bears  are  about  gone,  but  the  rabbits  and  doves 
are  here  yet.  Shoe  pegs  have  done  as  much  for  the 
world  as  telegraph  poles.  So  let  us  not  make  the 
serious  blunder  of  thinking  we  are  nearer  heaven 
than  other  folks  because  we  were  born  up-stairs. 

There  was  no  reason  for  the  big  jump  Mr.  Hopper 
made.  He  wasn't  trying  to  go  anywhere  in  particu- 
lar, and  wasn't  going  for  anything  definite,  and  there 
was  no  special  need  of  his  being  in  such  a  hurry. 
Something  Hke  that  has  been  the  only  fault  with  a 
great  deal  of  preaching.  The  sermon  was  made 
yvithout  any  thought  of  purpose  or  result.  It  was 
nothing  more  than  a  shot  in  the  air,  like  a  man-of- 
war  salute.  There  was  no  bullet  in  the  gun — nothing 
to  hit  with,  and  no  aim  taken,  and  had  there  been  any 
visible  result  the  preacher  would  have  been  amazed. 

Two  sailors  on  shore  dropped  into  a  church  and 
heard  a  sermon  as  polished  as  a  young  woman  just 
out  of  boarding-school. 

"  How  did  you  Hke  it.  Jack  ?  "  said  one,  as  they 
set  out  for  their  ship. 

"  Well,  I  tell  you,  messmate,"  said  Jack,  as  he 
rolled  his  quid  to  the  other  cheek,  as  the  able  seaman 
always  does  when  he  begins  a  yarn.  "  It  made  me 
think  of  a  whaler  just  leavin'  port  for  a  three  years' 
cruise.  Everything  on  deck  was  tidy  and  shipshape  ; 
with  every  rope  clean  and  coiled,  but  there  wasn't 
any  harpoons  on  board." 


38      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

And  that  perhaps  is  the  most  common  fault  with 
the  sermon.  There  is  nothing  that  takes  hold  of  a 
man  and  sticks  to  him,  like  burs  to  the  tail  of  a  lamb. 

In  the  days  of  childhood,  that  memory  holds  so 
dear,  whenever  the  moss-covered  bucket  was  lost  in 
the  well,  my  father  would  tie  a  rope  to  the  steel- 
yards, and  generally  recover  it  at  the  first  trial,  be- 
cause there  were  so  many  hooks  the  bucket  couldn't 
miss  them  all.  If  all  our  sermons  were  more  Hke 
steelyards  the  devil  would  probably  find  it  more  of 
an  up-hill  pull  to  make  prize-fighting  pay  so  much 
better  than  preaching.  There  is  certainly  something 
wrong  with  the  sermon  that  never  touches  a  wrong- 
doer anywhere. 

Sometimes  the  preacher  knows  that  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  with  him,  and  sometimes  he  doesn't, 
like  the  man  who,  when  refused  for  the  fourth  time 
by  the  same  girl,  said : 

"  I  more  than  half  believe  that  girl  don't  want  me." 

He  not  only  keeps  on  missing  the  bull's-eye  year 
after  year,  but  flatters  himself  that  he  is  improving 
in  his  shooting,  like  the  man  who  at  his  first  shot 
killed  a  calf,  and  at  the  next  a  cow.  And  yet  he  is 
as  far  wrong  in  his  conclusions  as  was  the  drunken 
man  who  fell  into  a  watering  trough  on  his  way 
home  one  night,  and  when  a  policeman  went  to  his 
rescue  he  blubbered  out : 

"  Never  mind  me,  officer ;  save  the  women  and 
children  !  " 

Many  a  man  misses  the  bull's-eye  because  he  is  not 
«€ven  snapping  a  cap  in  trying  to  hit  it.     Another 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULUS-EYE      39 

man  knows  everything  necessary  except  the  essential 
thing,  Hke  the  boy  who  would  have  been  perfect  in 
his  speUing  lesson  but  for  just  one  thing ;  he  missed 
all  the  words. 

That  kind  of  a  man  can  see  plainly  enough  why 
another  can't  make  the  bell  ring,  but  he  is  as  blind  as 
the  eye  of  a  potato  as  to  why  his  own  shooting  does 
not  disfigure  the  bull's-eye. 

Another  reason  for  the  hasty  and  altogether  un- 
premeditated way  in  which  Mr.  Hopper  helped  the 
gobbler  to  an  unexpected  relish  for  his  breakfast 
was  that  he  measured  himself  with  the  wrong  tape- 
line,  and  that  made  him  feel  so  much  bigger  than  he 
really  was  that  he  quickly  confirmed  the  words  of 
Solomon,  that  pride  goes  before  a  fall,  by  landing  in 
a  lower  berth  in  the  gobbler's  crowded  bread  basket. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  help  he  gets  from  vanity  the 
fool-killer  would  have  more  blisters  on  his  hands 
than  he  has.  The  devil  is  putting  the  butter  on  the 
right  side  of  his  bread  when  he  gets  a  self-righteous 
worldling  to  put  ear-muffs  on  his  conscience  and 
more  wind  in  his  lungs  by  measuring  up  with  the 
scrawniest  specimen  of  a  church  member  he  can  find, 
and  he  is  doing  about  the  same  thing  when  he  gets 
on  the  blind  side  of  the  man  in  the  pulpit,  and  makes 
him  believe  that  a  white  necktie  and  a  long-tailed 
coat  are  everything. 

It  was  watching  the  little  crickets  on  the  ground 
that  made  the  springs  in  Mr.  Hopper's  legs  work  too 
easily  for  his  good.  He  was  doing  exactly  what  the 
big  sinner  does  when  he  looks  down  on  the  little  saint 


40      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

in  the  church.  He  was  planting  the  right  kind  of 
seed  to  bring  him  a  vigorous  crop  of  whirlwind,  with 
plenty  of  thunder  and  lightning  thrown  in.  But  for 
that  he  would  not  have  made  the  Carrie  Nation  kind 
of  move  that  would  inevitably  make  the  hair-trigger 
of  the  gobbler's  fly-trap  do  its  deadly  work.  It  was 
because  the  crickets  looked  so  contemptibly  little  that 
he  felt  so  big. 

Looking  at  a  tadpole  probably  makes  a  frog  feel 
like  an  ox,  and  if  a  spike  has  feelings,  how  it  must 
despise  a  shingle  nail.  When  the  bramble  put  on 
its  crown  and  set  up  for  king,  it  was  probably  look- 
ing straight  at  a  little  pigweed.  One  look  at  a  big 
oak  tree  would  have  made  it  shrink  into  a  toothpick. 
Had  a  locust  the  size  of  a  cucumber  chanced  to  land 
for  a  moment  on  that  big  sunflower,  what  a  blessing 
in  disguise  it  might  have  been  to  Mr.  Grasshopper, 
for  it  would  have  taken  the  conceit  out  of  him  quicker 
than  a  shingle  can  put  humility  into  a  sulky  boy. 

When  the  spies  sent  out  by  Moses  came  slinking 
back  into  camp,  and  crawling  into  their  tents  by  the 
back  way,  they  no  doubt  felt  and  behaved  like  grass- 
hoppers because  they  had  seen  some  giant  breaking 
fence  rails  into  kindling  across  his  knee. 

Instead  of  standing  up  alongside  of  midgets  to  find 
out  how  big  we  are,  it  will  pay  better  in  practical 
results  to  line  up  with  a  real  giant  now  and  then, 
and  discover  how  little  we  are.  It  is  a  great  mis- 
fortune to  a  preacher  never  to  hear  any  bigger  preach- 
ing than  he  can  do  himself,  for  without  such  oppor- 
tunity he  has  a  small  chance  to  discover  himself. 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE      41 

No  man  ever  lost  his  place  in  the  procession  that 
is  moving  toward  the  persimmon  tree  by  discover- 
ing his  own  insignificance,  but  many  a  man  has  gone 
through  life  without  raising  any  dust  because  he  had 
been  deluded  into  believing  himself  to  be  as  big  as 
the  little  boy  thought  Alexander  was. 

Size  is  not  the  only  thing  that  reaches  the  home 
base  in  the  great  game  of  success.  Brain  can  beat 
muscle  every  day  m  the  week,  and  it  can  do  it  with 
its  right  hand  tied  behind  it.  An  electric  motor 
little  bigger  than  your  fist  can  run  more  machinery 
than  a  windmill  that  can  be  seen  a  mile. 

The  monument  to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  at  Plym- 
outh, Mass.,  stands  on  a  pedestal  that  is  so  much  too 
small  for  it  that  it  makes  it  look  as  if  Mr.  Puritan 
were  the  only  pebble  on  the  beach.  Something 
very  much  like  that  was  the  matter  with  the  grass- 
hopper when  it  began  to  preen  itself  and  put  on  airs 
over  the  humble  crickets  at  its  feet. 

Bishop  Mclntyre  kept  the  trowel,  with  which  he 
once  worked  as  a  bricklayer,  hanging  up  in  his  study, 
and  he  told  me  that  whenever  he  began  to  find  him- 
self becoming  top-heavy,  he  would  take  a  good  long 
look  at  it,  and  then  sit  down  where  he  belonged  again. 

There  is  a  verse  in  the  New  Testament  that  charges 
every  man  not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly  that 
he  ought  to  think,  and  just  how  much  the  world  may 
have  to  lose  because  many  of  us  do  not  have  some- 
thing like  that  trowel,  upon  which  we  may  some- 
times gaze  and  be  reduced  to  our  lowest  terms,  will 
perhaps  never  be  known. 


42      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

Mr.  Hopper  despised  the  crickets  that  were  so  far 
below  him,  and  it  never  got  into  his  green  Uttle  pate 
that  they  might  be  very  good  folk  in  spite  of  their 
humble  appearance.  He  would  have  turned  up  his 
nose — if  a  grasshopper  can  do  such  a  thing — at  the 
thought  of  their  being  able  to  teach  him  anything. 

A  dollar  and  a  penny  once  happened  to  come  to- 
gether in  a  preacher's  pocket,  and  the  dollar  at  once 
began  to  put  on  airs  like  a  red  cow  in  a  barn-yard. 

"  I  am  a  big  gun,"  said  the  dollar,  "  and  you  are  a 
nobody.  I  am  white,  and  bright,  and  you  are  only 
a  dull  mud-colored  little  Indian.  I  am  religious,  for 
I  am  all  the  time  saying,  *  In  God  we  trust,'  and 
you  are  only  a  pagan.  I  am  patriotic,  for  on  one 
side  I  have  the  American  eagle  and  on  the  other  the 
goddess  of  liberty,  and  I  buy  lots  of  fireworks  for  the 
4th  of  July.  I  am  heavenly  minded  too,  for  I  have 
stars  to  think  about,  and  you  don't  have  anything. 
I  am  precious,  for  I  am  nice  bright  silver,  and  every- 
body wants  me,  but  you  are  only  base  copper,  and 
nobody  cares  a  snap  for  you." 

"  That  may  all  be  so,"  said  the  poor  little  penny, 
in  a  weak,  piping  voice.  "  You  may  be  bigger  than 
I  am,  and  more  patriotic  than  I  am,  and  more  re- 
ligious than  I  am,  and  more  heavenly  minded  than  I 
am,  but  I  go  to  church  and  Sunday-school  a  good 
deal  more  than  you  do." 

In  like  manner  the  grasshopper  turned  up  his  nose 
at  the  crickets  because  they  were  little  and  black,  and 
felt  that  it  was  a  mark  of  his  own  virtue  to  despise 
them,  like  the  "  hardshell "  sister  who  said  she  knew 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULUS-EYE     43 

she  was  a  good  Christian  because  she  hated  the 
Methodists  so,  and  this  made  it  easy  for  Mr.  Hopper 
to  discount  both  the  priest  and  the  Levite  in  the 
celerity  With  which  he  passed  by  on  the  other  side. 

The  grasshopper  was  away  over  in  Missouri  in  his 
conclusions  because  he  judged  altogether  by  ap- 
pearances, and  the  fellow  who  does  that  will  always 
miss  it  as  badly  as  the  old  lady  did  her  thimble  after 
her  baby  grandson  swallowed  it.  Appearances  are 
always  deceitful  in  everything,  from  a  woman's  age 
to  a  cross-eyed  man's  intentions,  and  that  is  why 
Satan  is  still  doing  an  extensive  business  as  a  roaring 
hon.  Puddenhead  Wilson  said,  "We  ought  to  be 
thankful  for  the  fools,  for  without  them  the  rest  of  us 
couldn't  succeed  at  anything." 

Another  lesson  we  may  learn  from  the  grasshop- 
per is  that  he  had  more  energy  than  eyesight,  and 
it  is  that  way  with  a  lot  of  people. 

"  Hooray  for  me ! "  roared  a  man  as  he  came  reel- 
ing down  the  street  with  a  big  jag  on.  "  If  I  was 
lightnin'  I'd  tear  up  this  town  without  waitin'  to 
thunder." 

And  it  was  much  that  way  with  the  grasshopper. 
He  used  his  legs  too  much  and  his  eyes  too  little, 
like  a  preacher  who  told  me  that  he  made  six  calls 
before  breakfast  one  morning,  and  prayed  in  every 
house.     His  ability  was  not  evenly  balanced. 

If  some  people  would  only  use  their  eyes  more 
and  their  tongues  less,  what  Solons  they  would  be. 
The  most  of  us  are  too  quick  in  some  ways  and  too 
slow  in  others,  Hke  the  horse  that  travelled  sq  much 


44      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

faster  with  its  hind  legs  than  it  did  with  its  forelegs 
that  it  had  to  be  hitched  up  backward  to  keep  it  from 
running  over  itself.  Something  like  this  keeps  many- 
very  excellent  people  at  the  foot  of  the  class.  They 
do  too  much  in  the  wrong  way.  and  too  little  in  the 
right  way,  like  the  Irishman  who  turned  his  gas-meter 
upside  down,  and  claimed  at  the  end  of  the  month 
that  the  gas  company  owed  him  two  dollars. 

Mr.  Hopper  had  splendid  legs  but  wretchedly  poor 
judgment.  His  sparker  and  his  gasoline  didn't  pull 
together  any  better  than  some  churches  do.  He  was 
controlled  altogether  by  his  feelings,  like  the  young 
mother  who  allows  her  first  baby  to  boss  her.  His 
conduct  depended  too  much  on  the  amount  of  grass- 
hopper energy  he  had  in  the  boiler,  and  in  this  re- 
spect he  was  a  full  brother  to  a  lot  of  folks  who  in 
other  rejects  are  very  good  people. 

The  next  reason  for  the  Absalom-like  dispatch  with 
which  the  grasshopper  fell  from  his  brief  di'feam  of 
sunflower  splendor  was  the  very  same  as  that  which 
made  David's  handsome  and  rebellious  son  become 
an  easy  mark  for  the  fatal  darts  of  rough  and  gruff 
old  General  Joab.  The  real  cause  of  the  rapid  snuff- 
ing out  of  both  prince  and  grasshopper  was  that 
dangerous  swelling  of  the  head  which  Young  Amer- 
ica calls  "  getting  chesty,"  but  which  Solomon  in  his 
more  kingly  diction  pronounces  vanity.  It  is  a  sad 
day  for  a  young  man  when  he  begins  to  feel  so  big 
that  his  grandfather's  overcoat  wouldn't  make  him  a 
vest. 

Nothing  under  the  sun  has  done  any  more  to  help 


WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE      45 

the  fool-killer  earn  his  salary  than  self-conceit,  and 
nothing  else  has  ever  tried  to  do  so  big  a  business  on 
such  small  capital.  When  you  buy  a  turkey  for  your 
Thanksgiving  dinner  you  don't  want  to  pay  anything 
extra  for  the  gobbler's  strut,  but  the  conceited  man 
behaves  as  if  he  thought  you  ought  to. 

It  is  said  to  be  impossible  to  get  an  elephant  to 
drink  from  clear  water.  The  reflection  of  his  ugly 
mug  enrages  him,  and  he  whips  the  water  into  foam 
with  his  trunk,  and  I  have  often  wished  that  some- 
thing like  that  could  happen  with  the  conceited  man. 
One  good  square  look  at  himself  would  make  him 
mighty  sick  of  himself.  Moody  used  to  tell  of  a  man 
who  thought  so  much  of  himself  that  he  was  always 
shaking  hands  with  himself.  Just  as  a  preacher 
finished  marrying  a  couple  the  bride  said : 

"  My  first  husband  was  a  pretty  good  sort  of  a 
man.  I  don't  know  how  this  here  feller  will  turn 
out,  though  he  recommends  himself  very  highly." 

And  that  is  what  self-conceit  is  always  doing. 
Always  recommending  itself  very  highly.  Always 
shaking  hands  with  itself,  and  patting  itself  on  the 
head  in  most  complacent  approval.  Always  trying 
harder  to  attract  attention  to  itself  than  the  step- 
mother of  a  grown-up  daughter.  Always  spreading 
itself  like  a  green  bay  tree,  and  saying  with  the 
Pharisee,  "  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as  other 
men !  "  a  somewhat  boomerangish  fact  that  every- 
body is  well  aware  of. 

Self-conceit  and  self-confidence  are  two  very  dif- 
ferent things,  for  there  can  be  no  success  with  the 


46      WHY  WE  MISS  THE  BULL'S-EYE 

one  nor  without  the  other.  There  is  a  big  difference 
between  self-conceit  and  self-appreciation,  for  the 
man  who  does  not  believe  in  his  ability  to  do  the 
thing  he  sets  out  to  do  will  never  bring  anything  to 
pass.  There  is  a  vast  difference  between  feeling  as- 
sured that  we  can  do  some  things  and  thinking  we 
can  do  everything.  Perry  reached  the  North  Pole 
because  he  believed  he  could. 

The  self-conceit  that  often  keeps  us  from  splinter- 
ing the  target  of  success  is  that  inordinate  self- 
adulation  that  makes  us  as  blind  as  a  capital  I  to  our 
own  faults,  and  leads  us  to  unduly  magnify  whatever 
we  may  have  in  the  way  of  merit.  Some  preachers 
never  mar  the  beauty  of  the  bull's-eye,  mainly  be- 
cause they  are  so  top-heavy  with  self-importance 
they  think  nobody  else  can  do  anything. 

And  now  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  all  understand 
clearly  just  why  we  have  missed  the  bull's-eye — if  we 
have — and  as  knowledge  is  power  that  will  both  illu- 
minate and  run  machinery,  perhaps  we  shall  all  be 
able  hereafter  to  make  the  bell  ring. 


Ill 

CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

SOON  after  taking  up  my  residence  in  a  city 
where  I  lived  several  years,  I  began  to  be 
astonished  at  the  number  of  cripples  I  saw  on 
the  street.  It  was  not  at  all  unusual  to  see  six  or 
eight  at  one  time,  limping  along  with  canes  or  hob- 
bling on  crutches.  I  could  not  account  for  this,  until 
one  day  I  learned  that  one  of  the  local  institutions 
was  a  large  surgical  institute,  that  had  its  agents  out 
in  the  byways  and  hedges  compelling  the  lame  and 
the  halt  to  come  in  and  see  what  could  be  done  for 
them. 

My  attention  in  this  way  having  been  so  forcibly 
drawn  to  the  matter,  an  impression  was  made  that 
was  lasting,  and  I  have  from  that  time  noticed  that 
the  limpers  and  hobblers  are  a  very  numerous  folk, 
and  that  some  of  them  occasionally  get  into  the 
ministry.  The  people  I  had  seen  on  the  streets  were 
not  lame  from  choice,  but  many  a  preacher  is.  He 
limps  along  on  this  crutch  or  that  because  he  thinks 
it  is  becoming  to  him. 

The  cripples  referred  to  were  no  more  to  blame 
for  their  canes  and  crutches  and  braces  than  Mephib- 
osheth  was  for  his  broken  feet,  and  they  were  making 
a  hard  battle  for  deliverance  from  them,  but  I  have 

47 


48  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

seen  ministers  who  seemed  to  delight  in  wearing 
cork  legs  in  their  preachmg. 

Real  cripples  are  obliged  to  have  help  from  cants 
and  crutches,  and  no  one  will  deny  that  it  is  better 
for  them  to  walk  in  that  way  than  not  to  walk  at  all, 
but  the  world  is  full  of  those  who  persist  in  using 
canes  and  crutches  when  they  have  no  more  need  of 
them  than  Noah  had  for  a  blind  tiger  in  the  ark. 
The  doctors  all  know  that  their  most  exacting  pa- 
tients are  the  ones  who  have  nothing  the  matter  with 
them.  If  anybody  in  the  world  ought  to  be  exempt 
from  limping  and  hobbling,  it  is  the  man  whose  life 
business  it  is  to  tell  people  how  to  walk. 

The  man  who  speaks  for  God  should  himself  enjoy 
the  liberty  that  makes  free.  He  ought  to  be  able  to 
mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles ;  to  run  and  not  be 
weary,  and  to  walk  and  not  faint.  No  matter  what 
his  gait  may  be  he  ought  to  be  as  free  in  it  as  the 
flight  of  a  bird.  There  is  a  funny  inconsistency  in 
preaching  against  the  hobble  skirt,  if  the  preacher 
who  does  it  has  to  use  a  manuscript. 

When  David  went  out  to  meet  Goliath  he  left 
camp  on  his  own  feet,  and  didn't  have  any  crutches 
under  his  arm,  and  in  his  holy  warfare  the  preacher 
should  be  no  more  trammelled  than  was  the  shepherd 
boy. 

"  There  is  a  man  at  the  door  with  a  wooden  leg," 
said  an  office  boy  to  his  employer. 

*'  Tell  him  I  don't  want  any,"  was  the  quick  reply, 
and  the  preacher  should  be  just  as  prompt  to  make 
the  same  response  when  any  kind  of  a  habit  that 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  49 

carries  a  crutch  under  its  cloak  knocks  at  his  door. 
He  should  be  as  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season 
about  this  as  he  is  in  his  praying  or  in  anything  else 
he  does. 

There  are  all  kinds  of  crutches  and  all  kinds  of 
canes,  and  many  of  them  are  so  attractive  in  ap- 
pearance that  some  of  us  almost  pray  for  lameness 
that  we  may  use  them.  In  fact  it  is  hard  to  convince 
some  folks  that  there  is  not  positive  advantage  in 
having  to  limp,  as  the  woman  thought  who  married 
a  man  with  a  cork  leg  because  she  liked  machinery. 

A  man  told  me  that  he  saw  this  advertisement  in 
a  Chicago  paper :  "  Wanted — A  man  with  a  Wooden 
Leg — to  mash  potatoes  in  a  hotel."  Here  is  a  chance 
for  the  preacher  who  has  made  up  his  mind  to  be  a 
stick. 

In  canes  the  variety  is  endless,  ranging  from  the 
rod  of  Moses  to  the  modern  "  Big  Stick,"  and  the 
assortment  of  crutches  from  which  to  choose  is  just 
as  extensive  and  no  less  varied,  but  this  chapter  can 
only  deal  with  a  few  of  the  most  common  among  our 
own  ilk. 

Perhaps  the  most  widely  used  and  least  serviceable 
walking  sticks  in  vogue  among  us  are  preacher 
mannerisms  of  various  kinds,  from  the  pious  whine 
to  the  celluloid  smile,  for  it  is  hard  to  find  a  preacher 
who  is  not  marred  by  one  or  more  of  them.  You 
can  cut  off  a  preacher's  arm,  but  you  can't  keep  him 
from  sawing  the  air  with  it.  It  is  so  easy  to  fall  into 
wrong  preacher  habits,  and  so  hard  to  get  out  of 
them,  unless  the  preacher  has  a  wife  as  relentless  as 


60  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

Jael,  and  as  prompt  to  send  a  stake  through  the  heart 
of  every  bad  habit  that  tries  to  hide  in  his  tent. 

From  the  time  of  Joshua  the  Jews  have  known 
how  to  steam  ram's  horns  and  make  them  as  straight 
as  silver  trumpets  for  reHgious  use,  but  you  can't  do 
anything  hke  that  for  a  preacher  who  has  become 
all  twisted  up  with  mannerisms. 

A  man  who  was  being  examined  for  a  chauffeur's 
license  was  asked  what  he  would  do  in  case  he  should 
meet  a  carriage  filled  with  women  and  children  and 
the  team  take  fright.  He  scratched  his  head  for  a 
moment,  and  then  said  he  would  take  the  machine 
apart  and  hide  the  pieces  in  the  bushes,  and  I  want 
to  tell  you  that  would  be  a  snap  compared  to  getting 
a  preacher  out  of  ways  in  which  he  has  become  set. 

One  of  the  canes  upon  which  preachers  lean  and 
hmp  as  unmistakably  as  Jacob  did  when  he  halted 
upon  his  thigh  is  the  preacher  tone  upon  which  too 
many  of  us  depend  for  producing  effect  in  preaching. 
Of  course  there  are  no  preachers  in  our  section  who 
hobble  with  such  crutches,  but  you  can  find  plenty 
of  them  out  West. 

If  that  kind  of  a  preacher  would  speak  in  the 
pulpit  as  he  does  at  home  and  on  the  street,  and  as 
he  does  in  market  when  he  orders  two  pounds  of 
porterhouse  steak,  and  tells  the  butcher  just  how 
thick  he  wants  it  cut,  it  would  add  immensely  to  the 
effectiveness  of  his  preaching. 

What  is  the  sense  of  a  preacher  swelling  up  in  the 
neck  every  time  he  lines  out  a  hymn  or  reads  a 
Scripture  lesson  ?     And  why  should  he  use  a  tone 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  51 

that  sounds  as  if  it  came  from  the  bottom  of  a  well 
when  he  announces  that  the  ••  Woman's  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society  will  meet  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Amos 
Myers  next  Thursday  afternoon,"  if  he  expects  any 
attention  to  be  paid  to  what  he  says  ?  And  then 
what  is  the  sense  of  a  preacher  standing  on  his  tip- 
toes, getting  red  in  the  face,  and  yelling  as  if  he  were 
trying  to  send  a  message  by  wireless  whenever  he 
wants  to  put  anything  in  italics  ? 

The  lawyer  talks  to  the  jury,  or  he  fails  to  win  his 
case,  and  the  doctor  talks  to  his  patient,  and  why 
should  not  the  preacher  talk  to  his  congregation  ? 
Why  should  he  have  a  special  voice  that  he  never 
uses  outside  of  the  church  ?  A  voice  that  he  puts 
on  with  his  Sunday  coat  ?  If  a  preacher  were  to  go 
into  a  grocery  store  and  say,  in  the  same  tone  and 
manner  as  that  with  which  he  preaches,  "  Give  me 
six  pounds  of  boneless  codfish  !  "  he  would  be  laughed 
at  and  set  down  as  either  cracked  or  crazy,  and  those 
who  heard  would  feel  sorry  for  him.  A  visitor  to  a 
lunatic  asylum  sang  a  comic  song  to  the  inmates  with 
a  great  deal  of  action,  and  when  he  finished  an  old 
incurable  exclaimed : 

"  And  to  think  that  I'm  in  and  he's  out ! " 
People  talk  to  each  other  because  they  have 
learned  by  ages  of  experience  that  it  is  the  best  way 
to  communicate  ideas,  if  they  would  be  listened  to 
with  attention.  In  the  old  cave-dwelling  times  they 
probably  yelled  and  screamed  and  howled,  as  young 
children  do  in  some  families  and  in  some  churches 
now,  but  the  preacher  is  about  the  only  one  who  has 


62  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

kept  it  up.  How  much  better  it  would  be  for  every 
one  who  Hmps  in  that  way  to  break  his  crutch  and 
endeavor  to  walk  in  an  easy  and  natural  way.  But 
some  good  brother  says  : 

"  I  have  tried  to  preach  that  way,  and  I  can't  do 
it.  When  I  get  a-going  I  lose  myself  in  my  subject, 
and  before  I  know  it  I  am  preaching  at  the  top  of 
my  voice,  or  talking  with  a  holy  tone." 

But  no  man  has  a  right  to  lose  himself  entirely  in 
his  subject  unless  he  wants  to  lose  his  congregation. 
The  automobile  driver  loses  himself,  too,  when  he  is 
scorching  Hke  Jehu,  but  he  is  arrested  and  fined  for 
it.  There  is  no  better  reason  for  the  preacher  allow- 
ing his  subject  to  run  away  with  him  than  there  is 
for  the  chauffeur  letting  his  machine  run  away  with 
him. 

To  remember  himself  and  what  he  is  doing  is  a 
large  part  of  the  preacher's  business,  and  he  must 
keep  a  tight  rein  on  himself  if  he  would  be  up  to  par 
in  his  ministry.  So  he  should  keep  constantly  be- 
fore him  the  thought  that  he  is  in  the  pulpit  to  talk 
to  the  people  and  not  to  paralyze  their  ear-drums. 
He  should  continually  strive  to  use  his  voice  as  it 
should  be  used,  and  not  in  a  way  ridiculously  differ- 
ent from  what  God  ever  intended.  A  mother  said  to 
her  little  boy  at  the  dinner  table : 

"  Willie,  you  must  use  your  napkin." 

*'  I  am  using  it,  mamma;  I've  got  Towser  tied  to 
the  table  leg  with  it,"  said  Willie. 

And  in  the  use  of  his  voice  the  preacher  some- 
times misses  it  as  much  as  little  Willie  did.     When 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  53 

the  voice  is  used  in  the  wrong  way  the  effect  pro- 
duced is  sure  to  be  far  different  from  what  the 
preacher  intends. 

A  traveller  in  a  new  country  passed  a  piece  of 
woods  in  which  he  saw  a  lot  of  hogs  galloping  about 
in  the  wildest  kind  of  way,  like  the  herd  that  rushed 
headlong  into  the  sea.  Adjoining  the  woods  the 
stranger  saw  a  cabin,  and  haihng  an  old  man  who 
stood  in  the  door,  he  inquired  what  ailed  his  pigs. 
The  old  man  hobbled  out  to  the  fence  and  in  a  hoarse 
whisper  said : 

'•  I  lost  my  voice  some  time  ago,  and  had  to  call 
my  hogs  by  pounding  on  a  log  with  a  stick,  and 
now  the  blame  woodpeckers  have  come  and  set  'em 
crazy !  " 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  importance  of 
looking  well  to  the  voice  and  its  proper  use  cannot 
be  exaggerated. 

The  preacher  who  would  be  free  from  deforming 
limps  along  this  line  should  be  as  attentive  to  the 
proper  care  of  his  voice  as  Peter,  James  and  John 
were  to  the  care  of  their  nets.  Noise  is  not  power, 
though  some  of  us  often  preach  as  if  we  thought  it 
was.     An  old  preacher  once  said  : 

"  When  I  first  began  preaching  I  thought  it  was 
the  thunder  that  killed,  and  so  I  tried  to  make  all  the 
noise  I  could  in  my  preaching,  but  after  a  while  I 
found  out  it  was  the  lightning,  and  since  that  time  I 
have  tried  to  thunder  less  and  lighten  more." 

I  saw  a  poor  man  some  time  ago  who  was  in  a  sad 
state  from  locomotor  ataxia.     His  almost  lifeless  per- 


54  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

formance  was  not  only  pitiable  but  trying  to  both 
the  heart-strings  and  the  nerves  of  those  who  wit- 
nessed it.  He  had  two  canes  but  it  was  hard  to  see 
that  they  helped  him  any.  We  all  know  how  much 
this  is  like  the  effect  produced  by  the  man  who  puts 
no  life  into  his  preaching. 

One  reason  why  the  march  of  soldiers  thrills  us  is 
that  they  move  in  quick  time,  and  come  down 
squarely  on  their  heels  as  if  they  meant  something. 
Without  animation  in  its  delivery  the  best  sermon 
will  be  as  dead  as  an  Egyptian  mummy,  and  that  is 
about  the  deadest  thing  I  know  of,  except  some 
churches. 

Some  men  might  add  a  thousand  per  cent,  to  their 
preaching  power  if  they  would  only  put  a  little  gin- 
ger into  their  manner.  There  are  preachers  who 
talk  about  eternal  things  with  no  more  appearance 
of  concern  than  they  would  refer  to  something  they 
had  seen  in  last  week's  paper. 

I  once  saw  "  Ten  Nights  in  a  Bar  Room  "  played 
by  some  country  boys  and  girls  in  a  way  that  was 
enough  to  make  Shakespeare  come  up  out  of  his 
grave  and  climb  a  telegraph  pole.  When  a  boy 
killed  his  father  by  hitting  him  over  the  head  with  a 
beer  bottle,  the  lad  whose  lines  came  next  said  : 

"Why,  Frank  Slade,  you've  killed  your  father!" 
and  he  said  it  with  no  more  feeling  than  he  might 
have  said,  •*  Why,  Frank  Slade,  you've  dropped  a 
pin ! "  and  we  have  all  heard  men  preach  in  that 
same  way. 

Our  daily  papers  told  us  the  other  day  of  a  man 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  55 

who  had  been  run  over  by  a  hearse.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  he  was  not  a  preacher.  The  preacher 
should  so  speak  as  to  compel  attention,  or  stop 
preaching  and  go  to  mending  umbrellas.  There  was 
once  a  half-baked  kind  of  preacher  whose  house  was 
on  fire — and  you  would  think  that  if  anything  in  the 
world  would  wake  a  man  up  and  put  a  little  life  into 
him,  it  would  be  to  have  his  house  on  fire — but  this 
man  went  down  street  just  as  calm  and  composed  as 
if  he  were  in  the  pulpit,  saying  :  *•  Fire  !  Fire  !  Fire  !  " 
in  the  same  listless  way  that  he  would  give  out  a 
hymn.  Of  course  nobody  paid  any  attention  to  him, 
until  he  met  a  boy,  and  the  Httle  fellow  said : 

"  Did  you  speak  to  me,  mister  ?  " 

"  My  house  is  on  fire,"  said  the  preacher. 

"  Great  Scott !  "  yelled  the  boy  ;  "  fire  !  fire  !  fire  !  " 
and  away  he  went  on  the  run,  and  in  two  minutes  he 
raised  a  commotion  all  over  that  end  of  town  and  had 
the  fire  engines  on  the  gallop  for  the  parsonage. 

A  preacher  who  has  no  more  animation  than  a 
cold  pancake  in  his  preaching  is  as  disappointing  as 
a  painted  fire  in  zero  weather.  The  preacher  ought 
never  to  forget  that  his  attitude  and  bearing  and 
manner  are  as  certain  to  give  color  to  everything  he 
says  as  light  is  to  be  tinctured  by  the  glass  through 
which  it  passes. 

"  What  you  are  speaks  so  loud  that  I  cannot  hear 
what  you  say,"  said  Emerson,  and  what  the  preacher 
is  either  weakens  or  strengthens  his  preaching.  The 
way  he  stands  and  walks  and  sits,  and  the  way  he 
carries  his  hands  and  his  head,  can  no  more  be  sep- 


56  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

arated  from  his  preaching  than  Hght  can  be  separated 
from  the  sun.  That  is  why  people  always  want  to 
see  the  man  to  whom  they  listen.  They  judge  from 
his  looks  whether  he  means  what  he  says. 

A  crutch  that  has  made  sad  cripples  out  of  some 
preachers  is  a  slavish  dependence  upon  mere  human 
wisdom  for  material  out  of  which  to  make  their  ser- 
mons. In  too  many  preachers'  studies  the  Bible  is 
about  the  least  used  book  in  it,  and  I  am  afraid  some 
of  them  have  no  more  use  for  it  in  their  preaching 
than  a  nun  has  for  a  hat-pin.  A  preacher  in  a  uni- 
versity town  was  telling  a  friend  some  of  his  griev- 
ances. 

"  Why,"  said  he,  **  there  seems  to  be  nothing  for 
me  to  preach  about  any  more.  If  I  undertake  to 
preach  on  this  science  or  that,  there  is  sure  to  be  a 
professor  from  the  university  right  there  before  me, 
whose  business  it  is  to  teach  that  very  thing,  and  he 
knows  more  about  it  than  I  do,  for  he  is  an  expert, 
who  has  made  it  a  lifelong  study ;  and  so  it  is  with 
music  and  art,  history  and  literature,  and  everything 
else  you  can  think  of.  A  professor  who  is  an  expert 
is  sure  to  be  there  to  hear  me." 

"  Then  why  don't  you  dig  into  your  Bible  and  be- 
come an  expert  yourself  ?  "  said  his  friend.  And  right 
there,  brethren,  is  where  some  of  us  run  out  of 
gasoline. 

In  preparing  their  sermons,  there  are  preachers 
who  go  from  book  to  book,  and  from  magazine  to 
magazine,  getting  one  thing  here  and  another  there, 
as  a  goat  finds  its  dinner,  without  caring  much  what 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  57 

it  is  or  where  it  conies  from.  It  is  sad  but  true  that 
preachers  can  be  found  who  make  their  sermons  as  a 
woman  does  her  shopping  — 

"  She  wants  to  buy  wool  underwear, 
The  warmest  she  can  get ; 
But  strilOBs  a  bargain  counter 
And  gets  embroidered  net." 

They  skim  the  newspapers  and  drink  deep  from 
the  Reviews,  but  keep  as  far  from  the  Bible  as  the 
priest  and  the  Levite  did  from  the  half  dead  man  on 
the  Jericho  Road.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that 
perhaps  the  main  reason  why  those  high  church  fel- 
lows took  the  other  side  of  the  pike  was  that  they 
had  no  wine  and  oil  with  them  on  that  trip.  Ser- 
mons that  have  nothing  in  them  that  comes  out  of 
the  Bible  are  as  far  from  being  what  preaching  ought 
to  be  as  was  the  bride's  first  cake: 

"  She  measured  out  the  butter 

With  a  very  solemn  air. 
The  milk  and  sugar  also,  and 

She  took  the  greatest  care 
To  count  the  eggs  correctly. 

And  add  a  little  bit 
Of  baking  powder,  which  you  know 

Beginners  oft  omit. 
Then  she  stirred  it  altogether, 

And  she  baked  it  for  an  hour, 
But  she  never  quite  forgave  herself 

For  leaving  out  the  flour." 

There  was  once  a  preacher  whose  constant  prac- 
tice it  was  to  get  his  sermons  from  all  over  creation, 


68  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

as  a  woman  does  a  mess  of  greens,  who  one  Sunday 
morning  found  a  card  lying  on  top  of  the  heavy 
clasped  Bible  in  the  pulpit  bearing  these  words  : 

"  Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus." 

He  took  the  hint,  and  after  getting  down  on  his 
knees  and  staying  there  for  a  long  Jijdiile,  he  got  down 
deep  in  his  Bible,  and  it  was  not  long  before  his 
heart  was  gladdened  by  finding  another  card  where  he 
had  found  the  first,  and  this  was  the  inscription  it  bore  : 

•'  Then  were  the  disciples  glad  when  they  saw  the 
Lord  1 " 

Some  of  you  have  heard  how  Mr.  Moody  became 
the  great  preacher  that  he  was,  and  some  of  you  have 
not.  This  is  the  story  as  I  have  heard  him  tell  it : 
He  had  a  young  man  from  England  staying  in  his 
home,  who  had  been  wonderfully  taught  of  God,  and 
who  was  like  Nathaniel  in  being  an  Israelite  in  whom 
there  was  no  guile.  After  the  stripling  had  been 
with  Mr.  Moody  for  some  time  he  one  day  said  to 
him : 

"  Mr.  Moody,  I  want  to  tell  you  something  that 
you  don't  know.  You  are  preaching  a  great  deal  of 
Moody,  but  you  are  not  preaching  Christ.  You  have 
a  fine  library,  and  I  notice  that  when  you  want  to 
make  a  sermon  you  get  out  a  lot  of  books  and  spread 
them  around  you.  You  get  one  thing  out  of  this 
book  and  another  out  of  that  one,  but  you  don't  get 
anything  out  of  the  Bible,  and  so  you  keep  Christ 
out  of  your  preaching.  By  doing  that,  Mr.  Moody, 
you  are  making  yourself  a  cistern,  and  God  wants 
you  to  be  a  fountain.     If  you  will  lock  up  your  books 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  69 

and  let  your  wife  keep  the  keys  for  six  months,  and 
during  that  time  prayerfully  study  your  Bible,  God 
will  make  such  a  fountain  out  of  you  that  you  will 
not  have  any  trouble  about  making  your  sermons." 

Moody  found  the  medicine  a  little  bitter,  but  he 
had  the  good  sense  to  see  that  it  was  what  he 
needed,  and  from  that  time  on  he  became  a  man 
of  one  book,  and  God  did  make  a  fountain  of  him 
whose  healing  waters  went  all  over  the  earth. 

And  one  reason  to-day  why  some  preachers  are 
so  weak  in  their  ankle  bones  that  they  can't  get 
along  without  canes  and  crutches  is  that  they  are 
not  Bible  preachers.  The  pastor  of  a  prominent 
church  was  once  called  upon  to  make  the  opening 
prayer  on  Thanksgiving  Day  in  his  own  pulpit  by 
the  man  who  was  to  preach  the  sermon,  and  he 
declined,  saying,  "  I'm  not  prepared  !  "  and  he  wasn't, 
because  he  got  his  prayers  from  Shakespeare  and 
Burns  and  Kipling  and  Walt  Whitman.  Like  King 
Ahaz,  the  preacher  who  steers  clear  of  the  Bible  goes 
to  Damascus  for  the  pattern  of  his  altar. 

A  preacher  whose  hobby  was  total  abstinence 
was  being  entertained  at  a  table  where  the  sauce 
happened  to  be  brandied  peaches.  He  ate  a  dish 
with  so  much  zest  that  his  hostess  easily  persuaded 
him  to  try  another.  When  that  was  quickly  put 
out  of  sight  she  asked  him  if  he  would  not  have 
just  one  more  peach. 

"  No,  I  thank  you,"  said  he,  "  not  any  more  of 
the  fruit,  but  I  will  take  a  little  more  of  the 
gravy." 


60  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

One  trouble  with  some  preaching  is  that  it  gives 
you  too  much  of  the  world's  spiked  gravy. 

I  have  been  entertained  in  many  homes  in  which 
I  found  men  who  were  not  churchgoers,  and  I  have 
asked  them  why  ?  They  have  been  almost  unan- 
imous in  telling  me  that  it  was  because  they  did 
not  get  anything  worth  while  when  they  did  go. 

"  If  I  could  only  be  sure,"  many  a  man  has  said 
to  me,  "  that  I  would  get  something  out  of  the  Old 
Book  that  father  and  mother  used  to  go  to  in  time 
of  trouble,  I  would  be  there  every  Sunday,  but  if  I 
have  to  be  doped  with  a  lot  of  stuff  the  preacher 
gets  out  of  his  books  and  magazines,  I  prefer  to 
stay  at  home,  where  in  my  easy  chair  I  can  read 
something  that  will  interest  me  much  more." 

One  of  our  church  papers  recently  contained  a 
letter  from  a  preacher  who  said  that  he  had  a  library 
of  several  hundred  volumes,  and  yet  he  felt  that  he 
had  been  handicapped  in  his  ministry  by  not  having 
been  able  to  afford  one  two  or  three  times  as  large. 
Perhaps  so,  but  more  likely  his  ministry  would  have 
meant  more  in  heaven  had  he  not  had  so  many 
books. 

I  am  not  saying  anything  against  a  preacher  being 
well  read,  if  he  is  also  well  read  in  his  Bible,  but  if 
he  is  so  taken  up  with  other  books  that  he  has  no 
time  to  feed  on  the  word  of  God,  he  is  certain  to  be 
a  lame  man  in  his  ministry,  and  the  sad  fate  of 
another  good  but  misguided  man  may  be  his.  Hear 
this : 

<*And  Asa   was   diseased   in   his  feet,  yet  in  his 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  61 

trouble  he  went  not  to  the  Lord,  but  to  the  doctors. 
.     .     .     And  Asa  slept  with  his  fathers." 

No  other  wisdom  can  make  up  for  ignorance  of 
what  God  says.  The  early  Methodist  preachers 
were  men  of  power  largely  because  they  knew  their 
Bibles,  and  preached  what  they  found  in  them. 
When  the  preaching  is  the  very  essence  of  what 
God  says,  God  Himself  is  the  preacher,  and  those 
who  hear  are  not  long  in  finding  it  out. 

A  preacher  was  at  work  in  his  study  when  his 
little  five-year-old  tot  walked  in  and  said : 

"  What  are  you  writing,  papa  ?  " 

"  A  sermon,"  he  told  her. 

"  How  do  you  know  what  to  write,  papa?  " 

"  God  tells  me,"  he  said. 

"Then  what  makes  you  scratch  it  out?"  she 
asked,  as  she  climbed  up  on  his  lap  and  looked  at 
his  manuscript,  and  it  is  doing  that  very  thing  that 
makes  some  of  us  limp  so  much  in  our  preaching. 

I  don't  think  I  ever  saw  an  audience  inattentive 
when  the  preaching  was  coming  out  of  the  Bible, 
and  we  all  know  that  nothing  will  so  quickly  awaken 
a  sleepy  congregation  as  a  Bible  illustration.  A 
Scripture  lesson  well  read  is  always  heard  with 
breathless    attention. 

George  Mueller,  the  man  of  such  monumental 
faith  that  in  answer  to  his  prayers  millions  of  dollars 
were  put  into  his  hands,  was  practically  a  man  of 
one  book,  for  all  the  volumes  in  his  library  at  the 
time  of  his  death  could  have  been  placed  on  a  shelf 
four  feet  long,  and  yet  he  was  so  great  in  his  preach- 


62  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

ing   that   masters    in   Israel  were  glad  to  sit  at  his 
feet. 

Dr.  A.  T.  Pierson,  his  biographer,  declared  him 
to  have  been  the  greatest  preacher  he  ever  heard, 
and  of  his  preaching  Dr.  Sawtell,  chaplain  to  British 
and  American  sailors  at  Havre,  France,  wrote  to 
Dr.  Francis  Wayland,  of  this  country : 

"  For  three  Sabbaths  I  sat  under  his  teachings, 
and  heard  him  twice  each  day.  Though  he  in- 
vited me  to  preach  for  him  I  declined,  for  the  very 
reason  that  I  could  not  afford  to  lose  the  precious  op- 
portunity of  hearing  him.  The  results  of  his  method 
of  preaching  are  seen  in  the  numbers  of  men  and  women 
connected  with  his  church  who  have  become  mighty 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  are  better  qualified  to  expound, 
them,  and  to  guide  inquiring  souls  to  Christ  than 
many  a  young  minister  who  has  spent  his  three  years 
in  a  theological  seminary.  Let  no  one  imagine  that 
this  kind  of  preaching  becomes  dry  and  heavy. 

"  Never  have  I  listened  to  more  burning  words 
and  touching  eloquence  than  occasionally  burst  from 
the  lips  of  this  man  of  God,  and  especially  when  he 
turned  to  the  young,  and  with  all  the  tenderness  and 
pathos  of  a  loving  father,  plead  with  them  to  *  seek 
now  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found,  and  call  upon 
him  while  he  is  near.'  I  doubt  whether  I  shall  ever 
see  his  like  again  this  side  of  heaven.  If  I  am  not  a 
better  man  in  future,  possessing  more  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  more  faith,  more  of  the  spirit  of  prayer  and 
of  holy  living,  for  having  spent  three  weeks  at  his 
feet,  surely  my  case  is  a  very  sad  one  indeed." 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  63 

George  Mueller  was  pastor  of  one  church  for  sixty- 
six  years — the  longest  term  on  record — and  preached 
up  to  the  day  of  his  death.  Here  is  something  for 
men  who  are  afraid  of  the  dead  line  to  think  about. 
He  lived  to  be  ninety-three  years  old,  and  read  the 
Bible  through  more  than  200  times. 

A  crutch  that  often  makes  a  lame  man  out  of 
one  who  might  run  through  a  troop  and  leap  over 
a  wall  is  a  slavish  dependence  upon  notes  in  preach- 
ing. Had  Simon  Peter  used  manuscript  the  chances 
are  that  somebody  else  would  have  been  divinely 
commissioned  to  do  the  preaching  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost.  If  there  is  anything  that  will  throw  more 
of  a  damper  over  the  average  congregation  than  to 
have  the  preacher  pull  out  a  big  thick  manuscript,  it 
would  be  hard  to  decide  what  it  is. 

I  doubt  if  anything  will  make  the  preacher  more 
natural  and  effective  than  the  habit  of  never  taking 
a  scrap  of  paper  into  the  pulpit  with  him.  This  prac- 
tice persevered  in  will  result  in  his  making  his  outhnes 
so  clear  and  simple  as  to  be  easily  carried  in  the  mind. 

Preaching  without  notes  also  has  the  advantage  of 
permitting  a  more  direct  and  definite  aim,  and  the 
man  who  fires  any  kind  of  a  shot  ought  at  least  to 
know  the  township  in  which  it  is  likely  to  strike  be^ 
fore  he  pulls  the  trigger,  or  his  gunning  may  be  like 
that  of  the  hot-headed  young  tourist  — 

"  Who  saw  a  deer ;  blazed  at  it  hot ; 
The  hasty  charge  went  wide. 
But  though  he  failed  to  guide  the  shot  — 
Poor  man — he  shot  the  guide  !  " 


64  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

Having  to  follow  the  typewritten  page  will  also 
sometimes  put  the  preacher  in  the  same  kind  of  a 
straight-jacket  as  the  young  rector  found  himself  in 
when  a  baby  next  door  fell  into  the  cistern,  and  its 
frantic  mother  shrieked  to  him  for  help.  Without 
waiting  to  put  on  his  canonicals,  he  grabbed  up  his 
prayer-book,  and  scorched  over  its  pages  until  he 
struck  the  "  Prayer  for  a  Safe  Return  From  Sea." 

When  a  speaker  talks  entirely  without  notes  he  is 
not  held  down  like  a  captive  balloon.  The  people 
see  that  he  is  not  dependent  upon  any  visible  helps, 
and  will  greatly  help  him  with  their  sympathy  and 
good  will,  but  how  quick  they  will  put  up  the  shut- 
ters against  him  when  they  have  to  wait  for  him  to 
thaw  out  his  pemmican.  Folks  want  to  be  talked 
to,  and  will  lean  forward  to  help  the  talker. 

It  is  undoubtedly  better  to  forget  some  things  we 
planned  to  say  than  to  run  the  risk  of  having  the 
magnetic  cord  of  sympathetic  interest  broken  by 
reading  instead  of  speaking.  And  then  the  chances 
are  that  the  things  we  forget  will  never  be  missed  by 
those  who  hear,  and  something  much  more  telling 
may  be  said,  as  once  happened  with  Father  Taylor, 
the  old-time  preacher  to  sailors.  He  became  so  en- 
tangled in  a  long  sentence  that  kept  on  growing  and 
growing,  like  a  runaway  scene  in  a  moving  picture, 
until  at  last  he  had  to  stop  and  say : 

**  Brethren,  I  don't  exactly  know  where  I  went  in 
in  beginning  this  sentence,  and  I  don't  know  where  I 
am  going  to  come  out,  but  I  do  know  that  I  am 
bound  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ! " 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  65 

If  we  will  persevere  in  a  determination  to  preach 
without  notes  we  will  stop  forgetting.  The  postal 
clerk  is  compelled  to  remember  the  location  of  post- 
offices,  and  the  best  way  for  mail  to  reach  them,  and 
so  develops  what  seems  to  be  a  phenomenal  memory, 
and  something  like  that  is  sure  to  come  from  ex- 
temporaneous preaching.  To  be  compelled  to  re- 
member is  the  surest  way  known  to  have  a  good 
memory. 

In  preparing  to  preach  without  notes  the  thoughts 
will  be  more  firmly  riveted  together  by  associations 
that  will  become  stronger  and  stronger  with  practice, 
until  they  will  hold  like  a  sailor's  knot  and  not  slip, 
as  they  will  when  the  only  hope  of  being  able  to 
walk  through  the  duty  of  the  hour  depends  altogether 
on  a  written  outHne.  The  plan  of  the  sermon  will 
become  more  simple,  and  there  will  be  a  thread  of 
logical  connection  that  will  keep  its  tension  all  the 
way  through.  This  will  strengthen  the  preaching 
too,  for  what  is  spoken  carries  with  it  the  conviction 
that  it  is  something  the  preacher  knows,  and  not 
something  he  has  found  all  ready  prepared,  like 
Battlecreek  breakfast  food. 

A  grocery  clerk  was  trying  to  sell  a  lady  a  new 
article  in  that  line,  and  his  strongest  argument  in  its 
favor  was  that  it  was  predigested  food,  and  she  in- 
stantly inquired : 

"  And  by  whom  ?  " 

I  was  told  of  a  church  where,  inside  of  a  year, 
three  visiting  preachers  all  preached  the  same  sermon, 
and  one  of  them  was  the  presiding  elder.     Those  who 


G6  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

heard  them   all   might  well  have  asked   the  same 
question. 

Many  a  lawyer  who  has  all  the  law  and  most  of 
the  evidence  on  his  side  loses  his  case  because  the 
opposing  counsel  gets  so  close  to  the  jury  that  they 
believe  everything  he  says,  and  for  the  preacher  to 
get  close  to  his  congregation  by  talking  to  them  is 
more  than  half  the  battle.  Before  the  people  will  be 
very  much  moved  toward  any  definite  course  of 
action  by  the  sermon,  they  must  be  brought  to  full 
sympathetic  trust  in  the  preacher,  and  nothing  will 
insulate  against  this  like  finding  out  that  he  has  to 
depend  on  fly  tracks  on  a  sheet  of  paper  for  his  in- 
spiration. 

If  a  preacher  simply  wants  to  reach  the  heads  of 
his  hearers  it  may  be  all  right  for  him  to  do  his 
preaching  with  a  goose-quill,  but  if  he  aims  at  the 
heart  he  will  come  closer  to  it  without  any  paper 
wadding.  I  was  once  at  a  camp-meeting  where  this 
prayer  was  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  evening 
service  on  Sunday,  by  an  old  preacher  who  believed  in 
opening  his  mouth  and  giving  the  Lord  a  chance  to  fill 
it,  the  morning  sermon  having  been  from  manuscript : 

**  O  Lord,  save  us  from  these  sermons  that  are 
brought  here  out  of  ice  boxes.  Lord,  how  can  you 
scald  a  hog  in  ice- water  ?  " 

And  he  went  on  for  ten  minutes  in  the  same 
strain.  That  same  kind  of  a  prayer  is  continually 
going  up  from  many  hearts  in  many  churches, 
though  it  may  not  find  expression  in  such  barbed- 
wire  language. 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  67 

A  preacher  with  manuscript  is  hke  a  bird  with  a 
broken  wing.  No  matter  how  much  he  may  long 
to  soar  he  is  kept  close  to  the  ground,  and  cannot  go 
where  he  would.  In  a  shot  at  a  wild  turkey  an  old 
hunter  merely  broke  its  wing,  and  as  it  ran  into  the 
brush  and  escaped  him,  he  looked  after  it  in  disap- 
pointment, and  growled  out : 

"  Well,  I  didn't  git  you,  but  you'll  never  roost  ez 
high  ez  you  want  to  agin  ! " 

Before  the  average  congregation  the  preacher  with 
a  manuscript  is  no  better  off  than  was  that  poor 
turkey.  There  is  something  in  preaching  that  can 
only  go  from  heart  to  heart  through  the  eye,  and 
this  is  lost  when  the  sermon  is  written  and  read,  and 
that  is  why  so  many  would  rather  hear  an  ordinary 
talker  than  a  good  reader. 

Dr.  Richard  S.  Storrs,  who  was  great  with  a  manu- 
script, and  who  preached  altogether  in  that  way  for 
more  than  twenty-five  years,  then  became  a  fine  ex- 
temporaneous speaker  and  never  returned  to  reading, 
said: 

"  I  verily  believe  that  the  kingdom  of  God  ad- 
vances more  on  spoken  words  than  it  does  on  essays 
written  and  read;  on  words,  that  is,  in  which  the 
present  feelings  of  the  teaching  mind  break  into 
natural  and  forceful  expression." 

Certainly  Dr.  Storrs  was  never  able  to  get  as  high 
with  his  manuscript  as  he  wanted  to  go,  and  the  fact 
that  after  so  many  years  of  unsatisfactory  labor  he 
sought  and  found  what  he  gladly  declared  to  be  a 
better  way,  ought  to  cause  the  young  minister  to 


68  CANES  AND  CRUTCHES 

hesitate  before  he  becomes  wedded  to  a  manuscript, 
for  a  divorce  from  it  may  not  be  an  easy  matter 
when  he  begins  to  shed  the  bitter  tears  of  repentance. 

Probably  the  best  things  in  any  sermon  are  the 
sudden  flashes  of  thought  not  dreamed  of  before,  the 
happy  inspirations  of  the  moment,  heaven -born  for 
the  occasion.  We  can  all  remember  how  some  of 
the  most  telling  and  effective  things  we  have  ever 
said  came  to  us  as  illuminations,  and  never  could 
have  been  thought  out  and  prepared  beforehand. 

If  the  preacher  is  certain  that  he  was  born  with  a 
twist  that  makes  it  absolutely  necessary  for  him  to 
use  manuscript,  then  perhaps  it  may  be  all  right  for 
him  to  keep  his  inkhorn  by  his  side,  but  he  ought  to 
be  a  live  wire  when  he  comes  to  read  his  sermon. 
There  is  only  one  thing  worse  than  poor  preaching, 
and  that  is  poor  reading.  Poor  reading  in  the  pulpit 
is  inexcusable. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  rest  your  chin  on  your 
wish-bone,  if  you  want  your  sermon  to  reach  any- 
body in  your  congregation.  The  top  of  the  head  is 
far  less  attractive  in  appearance  and  expression  than 
the  average  countenance,  and  should  never  be  shown 
by  bending  over  the  reading  desk.  If  the  paper  is 
held  in  the  hand — as  it  always  should  be  if  the  reader 
cannot  see  it  clearly  without  stooping — it  should  be 
as  much  a  part  of  the  man  as  the  sword  is  of  the 
soldier.  The  clumsy  handling  of  paper  is  distracting 
and  annoying  to  most  people.  Care  should  also  be 
taken  to  have  the  face  in  a  good  light,  for  obvious 
reasons. 


CANES  AND  CRUTCHES  69 

But  no  matter  what  kind  of  canes  and  crutches  we 
use,  or  how  poorly  we  use  them,  let  us  prayerfully 
endeavor  to  walk  worthy  of  the  high  vocation  where- 
with we  are  called,  and  study  to  show  ourselves  ap- 
proved unto  God  as  workmen  who  need  not  be 
ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth,  whether 
we  do  it  with  a  fountain-pen,  a  typewriter  or  the 
jaw-bone  of — a  man  with  fire  in  his  bones. 


IV 

SERMON  PREPARATION 

IT  ought  not  to  be  a  difficult  matter  for  the 
preacher  to  find  a  subject  upon  which  to  preach. 
If  he  is  faithful  in  his  pastoral  work,  and  doesn't 
simply  talk  about  the  weather  in  his  calls,  he  ought 
to  have  subjects  crowding  upon  his  attention  as 
office  seekers  throng  the  corridors  of  the  White 
House.  He  will  find,  as  he  gets  his  finger  on  the 
pulse  of  his  congregation,  that  some  of  his  people 
are  worldly,  others  indifferent,  others  insincere,  others 
malicious,  others  unforgiving,  and  others  censorious, 
unrighteous  and  uncharitable. 

Still  others  he  will  find  who  are  distrustful,  and  not 
to  be  counted  upon  for  anything.  He  will  find  some 
who  are  buffeted  with  doubt,  some  who  are  hunger- 
ing and  thirsting  after  righteousness,  some  who  are 
anxious  to  learn  the  right  that  they  may  do  it,  and 
some  who  want  to  be  Christians,  and  would  be  if 
they  could  only  learn  how  to  make  a  start. 

And  there  will  be  others  who  want  to  be  whole- 
hearted spiritual  people,  who  are  making  little  head- 
way for  lack  of  a  little  practical  help  on  how  to  take 
up  proper  Bible  study.  Others  the  preacher  will  find 
who  would  soon  become  splendid  church  workers, 
with  a  little  wise  direction  about  how  to  begin.  He 
will  also  find  others,  and  many  of  them,  too,  who 

70 


SERMON  PREPARATION  Yl 

would  become  great  givers  if  they  were  only  shown 
how  to  give  in  a  way  to  learn  the  blessedness  of  it, 
and  knowing  all  these  things  about  the  people  to 
whom  he  preaches,  it  would  seem  as  if  the  preacher 
need  not  scratch  out  much  hair  in  trying  to  hit  on 
something  to  preach  about. 

When  a  doctor  learns  that  his  patient  has  a  head- 
ache and  cold  feet,  with  hot  flashes  and  icy  streaks 
chasing  each  other  up  and  down  his  spine,  along 
with  a  pain  in  his  side  and  a  buzzing  in  his  ears,  to- 
gether with  a  bad  taste  in  his  mouth  and  a  clammy 
feeling  about  his  flesh,  it  looks  to  a  layman  as  if  that 
doctor  ought  to  be  able  to  shut  his  eyes  and  take 
something  out  of  his  medicine  case  that  would  hit 
something  or  other  in  that  sick  man.  And  yet  there 
are  cases  on  record  of  where  a  preacher  has  for  years 
been  giving  heavy  doses  of  everything  he  could  think 
of  without  appearing  to  make  things  any  better  or 
worse. 

"  I  declare,"  said  a  young  doctor,  with  a  bewil- 
dered look,  "  I  can't  think  what  made  that  baby  die, 
for  I  gave  it  all  the  drugs  I  knew  the  names  of,"  and 
doing  that  very  same  thing  is  all  that  ails  some  other- 
wise strong  preaching. 

In  preparing  a  sermon  the  first  thing  necessary  is, 
of  course,  the  choosing  of  a  subject  and  a  text.  Some 
decide  on  a  subject  first,  and  then  hunt  up  a  text  to 
suit  it,  just  as  the  young  man  who  buys  a  necktie  at 
the  bargain  counter  tries  to  find  a  pair  of  socks  that 
will  match  it  in  radio-activity,  while  others  first 
choose  a  text  and  then  find  their  subject  in  it,  as  a 


72  SERMON  PREPARATION 

woman  prepares  a  dinner  from  the  contents  of  the 
grocer's  basket. 

To  be  sure  it  depends  altogether  on  the  man  and 
what  he  hopes  to  accompHsh,  as  to  which  is  the 
better  method,  just  as  it  depends  upon  whether  a 
farmer  is  going  to  chop  wood  or  make  hay,  as  to 
whether  he  would  better  take  an  ax  or  a  pitchfork. 

There  are  preachers  who  can  preach  for  an  hour 
without  having  either  a  subject  or  a  text,  and  some- 
times they  keep  it  up  for  years,  and  there  are  others 
who  can  take  any  text  in  the  Bible  and  give  you 
more  surprises  in  what  they  get  out  of  it  than  you 
ever  found  at  a  ten-cent  store. 

With  many  preachers,  however,  the  choosing  of  a 
text  is  the  hardest  part  of  making  a  sermon,  for 
when  they  once  get  a  good  text  the  sermon  almost 
makes  itself.  Some  ministers  find  it  a  great  help  to 
keep  a  garden  for  growing  sermons,  as  others  do  for 
growing  vegetables.  They  have  a  place  where  they 
plant  ideas,  and  have  subjects  incubating  all  the  time. 
There  are  many  ways  of  doing  this,  but  here  is  a 
simple  plan  that  may  help  somebody  to  make  a 
better  one : 

Provide  a  number  of  large  envelopes,  made  of 
good  paper  that  will  stand  the  wear,  and  whenever  a 
text  or  a  subject  makes  an  impression  upon  you, 
note  it  on  the  outside  of  an  envelope,  and  you  will 
have  planted  a  germ  from  which  a  sermon  will  grow. 
Then  afterward,  whenever  a  thought  comes  to  you 
on  that  subject,  jot  it  down  on  a  sUp  of  paper,  and 
put  it  in  the  envelope. 


SERMON  PREPARATION  73 

As  you  read  the  newspapers,  clip  everything  that 
will  make  a  good  illustration,  or  throw  light  on  your 
subject,  and  put  such  clippings  in  the  envelope.  A 
memorandum  of  serviceable  matters  found  in  books 
and  magazines  should  be  placed  in  the  envelope, 
telling  where  they  may  be  found. 

Collateral  texts  and  illustrative  material  found  in 
the  Bible  should  also  be  noted  in  the  same  way.  By 
this  means  the  preacher  will  be  continually  accumu- 
lating the  very  best  kind  of  material  on  a  number  of 
subjects,  and  will  at  the  same  time  be  forming  a  sys- 
tematic habit  of  thinking  and  working  that  will  be  of 
lifelong  benefit. 

It  was  Moody's  practice  to  prepare  his  sermons  in 
this  way,  and  when  engaged  in  a  meeting  he  would 
have  a  trunk  half-full  of  such  material  with  him. 

If  you  have  nothing  in  mind  when  the  time  comes 
to  begin  the  preparation  for  your  sermon,  looking 
over  texts  on  which  you  have  accumulated  some 
ideas  and  material  is  likely  to  result  in  the  mind 
taking  hold  of  something  that  will  soon  begin  to 
open  up  to  you.  When  this  is  the  case  look  at  it 
from  all  sides,  as  a  Kentuckian  would  examine  a 
horse.  Hold  it  before  your  mind's  eye  until  you 
have  seen  all  there  is  in  it  for  you,  and  then  if  it  still 
satisfies  your  mind  and  quickens  your  heart,  be  of 
good  courage,  for  you  have  found  a  good  subject  on 
which  to  preach. 

Thoughtful  and  prayerful  brooding  upon  the  theme 
thus  decided  upon  is  bound  to  give  you  a  message 
that  God  will  use.     As  you  engage  in  deep  and  pro- 


74  SERMON  PREPARATION 

longed  meditation  on  the  subject,  there  will  come 
out  of  the  hidden  recesses  of  your  mind  all  you  may 
know  that  has  a  bearing  on  it.  Close  and  thoughtful 
attention  will  do  for  you  what  the  search-light  does 
in  the  mine.  It  will  discover  and  bring  into  view 
great  stores  of  hidden  treasure. 

It  is  well  to  break  up  the  text  and  get  out  of  it  all 
you  can  with  your  own  hammer,  before  you  seek  any 
help  from  the  material  you  may  have  in  your  envel- 
ope, jotting  down  briefly,  or  fixing  clearly  in  the 
mind  the  points  you  discover. 

After  this  has  been  done  you  can  refer  to  your 
accumulated  material  with  profit,  for  it  will  not  then 
supplant  or  smother  your  own  thought,  but  may  give 
you  good  suggestions  that  you  can  work  out  in  your 
own  way,  and  they  will  bear  the  stamp  of  your  own 
individuality. 

As  you  thus  go  on  reflecting  and  turning  things 
over  in  your  mind,  ideas  will  begin  to  shape  them- 
selves in  an  orderly  way,  and  the  dominating  parts 
of  your  plan  will  come  into  view,  Hke  land  rising  out 
of  the  sea. 

It  is  well  to  get  into  the  habit  of  avoiding  com- 
plexity in  your  outhne,  for  the  simpler  you  can  make 
it  the  better  attention  your  preaching  will  have,  and 
the  more  of  the  sermon  will  be  carried  away  by  those 
who  hear  it.  Endeavor  to  have  your  outline  as  simple 
in  design  as  a  two-foot  rule  if  you  would  be  heard 
with  interest  and  profit. 

A  simple  outline  is  easily  understood,  and  no 
harder  to  follow  than  a  load  of  hay.     The  Truth  is 


SERMON  PREPARATION  75 

more  likely  to  accomplish  its  purpose  and  not  return 
void  when  it  is  so  clearly  and  simply  presented  that 
it  can  be  understood.  A  preacher  was  sent  for  to 
visit  a  man  who  was  quite  deaf,  and  on  arrival  he  said  : 

"  What  induced  you  to  send  for  me  ?  " 

"  What's  he  say,  wife  ?  "  asked  the  deaf  man. 

The  old  lady  braced  her  feet  and  shouted  in  his  ear : 

"  He  says, '  What  the  deuce  made  you  send  for 
me?'" 

There  was  too  much  complexity,  don't  you  see, 
and  that  is  often  the  trouble  with  some  otherwise 
good  preaching.  Had  the  preacher  simply  said: 
"  What  do  you  want  ? "  he  would  have  found  out 
in  the  next  breath. 

There  is  no  use  in  putting  any  more  wheels  on  a 
cart  than  are  needed,  and  the  same  is  just  as  true  of  a 
sermon  plan.  The  nearer  truth  is  stripped  to  the 
buff  the  more  certain  it  is  to  be  recognized.  High- 
heeled  shoes,  false  hair  and  store  clothes  only  mis- 
lead and  confuse. 

Every  unnecessary  syllable  added  to  an  expressive 
word  puts  cotton  in  the  ears  of  somebody.  Our 
Lord  was  gladly  heard  by  the  common  people,  be- 
cause He  talked  so  that  they  could  understand  Him. 
It  didn't  take  a  theologian  to  comprehend  what  He 
said.  So  it  is  well  for  the  preacher  to  aim  toward 
simplicity  in  his  sermon  plan  if  he  would  be  on  the 
safe  side. 

A  little  boy  can  look  at  the  running  gears  of  a 
wagon  and  carry  the  whole  thing  in  his  mind,  but  it 
takes  a  mechanician  to  comprehend  an  automobile. 


76  SERMON  PEEPAEATION 

If  we  would  make  our  preaching  as  simple  as  boiling 
^ggs,  we  would  have  more  intelligent  attention  paid 
to  what  we  say  in  the  pulpit. 

It  is  a  good  plan  to  make  as  much  of  your  prep- 
aration as  possible  by  intense  and  careful  thinking, 
without  putting  the  result  on  paper,  for  what  you 
write  will  not  come  back  to  you  while  speaking 
with  the  force  and  freshness  of  the  things  you  think 
out  verbally.  Making  a  preparation  in  that  way 
will  fix  it  in  the  mind  in  a  much  more  definite  and 
indelible  way. 

Making  a  written  preparation  too  often  trammels 
the  preacher  in  his  delivery  by  his  mind  vaguely 
trying  to  recall  what  he  has  written.  The  minister 
who  can  form  the  habit  of  making  his  preparation 
while  walking  or  taking  other  manual  exercise  will 
do  a  great  thing  for  himself,  for  he  can  then  be  build- 
ing his  sermon  wherever  he  is. 

This  was  Beecher's  habit.  He  spent  much  time 
in  walking  about  the  streets,  and  mingling  with  the 
people  in  the  stores,  and  wherever  he  went  he  gath- 
ered sermon  material  as  a  bee  does  honey. 

Bodily  exercise,  and  especially  walking,  has  a 
highly  stimulating  influence  over  the  brain.  Glad- 
stone found  that  he  could  do  his  best  thinking  while 
chopping  down  trees,  and  Lincoln  made  some  of  his 
speeches  while  splitting  rails.  The  fact  that  John 
the  Baptist  lived  on  locusts  and  wild  honey,  and  not 
on  theological  breakfast  food,  shows  that  he  must 
have  taken  plenty  of  outdoor  exercise. 

The   old-time  circuit  rider  prepared  his  sermons 


SERMON  PREPARATION  77 

while  walking  and  riding  from  place  to  place,  and 
mingling  with  the  people.  One  reason  why  they 
were  full  of  vim  was  because  they  were  made  in  the 
open  air,  often  preached  in  the  open  air,  and  to 
people  who  lived  in  the  open  air. 

Some  of  us  would  no  doubt  do  better  preaching 
to-day  if  we  did  not  so  often  have  to  speak  in 
churches  where  the  same  air  is  kept  bottled  up  all 
winter  long,  and  to  so  many  people  who  spend  the 
most  of  their  lives  in  the  same  kind  of  an  atmosphere. 
A  man  with  six  small  children  said  : 

"  It's  the  little  things  that  count." 

A  minister  who  was  spending  a  few  days  with  a 
preacher  friend  of  prominence  asked  him  how  he 
prepared  his  sermons. 

"  I'll  show  you  when  I  go  at  my  next  one,"  he 
was  told. 

A  day  or  two  passed  without  anything  being  done 
toward  making  a  sermon.  Then  the  visitor  became 
a  little  nervous  lest  he  miss  his  lesson,  and  intimated 
as  much. 

•*  Well,  I  guess  we'll  make  a  start  on  it  some  time 
to-day,"  returned  his  host. 

But  instead  of  being  asked  to  go  to  the  study,  an 
hour  or  two  later  he  was  invited  to  take  a  walk. 
They  started  out,  and  soon  came  to  where  some  men 
were  working  on  the  foundation  of  a  house.  They 
stopped  for  a  little  chat,  and  then  went  on  until  they 
came  to  a  store,  where  the}'  went  in  and  watched  a 
skillful  clerk  sell  a  big  bill  of  goods  to  a  farmer's  wife. 

After  this  they  started  on  again,  and  soon  came 


78  SERMON  PREPARATION 

to  a  heavy  load  of  brick  that  had  been  brought  to  a 
standstill  in  the  street  by  a  balky  mule.  The  driver 
was  thrashing  the  mule,  and  swearing  and  sweating 
like  a  prophet  of  Baal. 

The  next  incident  of  the  walk  was  a  stop  at  a 
vacant  lot  to  watch  some  boys  playing  ball,  and  then 
they  went  to  a  livery  barn  and  put  in  a  little  time  in 
seeing  a  black  man  clip  a  horse,  and  then  as  they 
turned  toward  home  the  street  was  thrown  into  a 
commotion  by  a  team  running  away. 

It  was  nearly  dinner  time  when  they  reached  the 
house,  and  the  visiting  brother  wondered  why  the 
other  had  frittered  away  so  much  time.  But  while 
they  were  resting  on  the  veranda,  the  preacher,  who 
had  promised  to  explain  his  method  of  making  a 
sermon,  showed  his  guest  how  he  had  already  found 
the  backbone  and  most  of  the  ribs. 

The  foundation  for  the  new  house  had  given  him 
his  theme,  which  was  "  Character  Building."  Three 
or  four  texts  were  named,  either  of  which  would  do. 
The  clerk  selling  the  bill  of  goods  had  suggested  the 
first  rib,  which  was  plan  or  purpose,  without  which 
no  building  of  any  kind  can  be  done.  The  sole  aim 
of  the  clerk  had  been  to  succeed  in  the  task  he  had 
assigned  himself,  and  all  his  ability  and  skill  were 
put  into  the  effort.  To  build  character  you  must  be 
just  as  definite,  determined  and  alert. 

The  wagon-load  of  brick  furnished  another  good 
rib.  To  build  you  must  have  proper  material  and 
plenty  of  it,  and  get  it  on  the  ground  in  good  shape, 
and  by  the  time  wanted. 


SERMON  PREPARATION  79 

Point  for  a  side  train  of  thought — If  you  have  a 
balky  will,  get  rid  of  it  and  find  a  better.  The  balky 
mule  also  suggested  how  our  main  dependence  will 
often  fail  us,  as  Job's  wife  did  her  patient  husband, 
and  the  swearing  and  sweating  of  the  driver  shows 
the  awful  waste  there  can  be  in  misdirected  effort. 

Point  No.  2  for  a  side  train  of  thought — The  devil 
always  agrees  with  the  man  who  thinks  he  can  put 
on  a  hair  shirt  and  turn  himself  into  a  saint.  The 
boys  playing  ball  showed  the  necessity  of  being  in 
earnest  if  you  would  have  a  good  time,  and  make 
things  go  with  a  hum.  Also  the  importance  of 
beginning  early.  Clipping  the  horse  made  the 
preacher  remember  that  we  must  strip  for  the  work 
we  undertake,  and  give  up  the  things  that  are  against 
our  success,  even  if  the  cold  iron  does  touch  us  where 
we  Hve. 

The  runaway  was  a  reminder  that  the  unexpected 
is  certain  to  happen,  and  was  also  a  warning  to 
always  take  wise  precautions  to  prevent  it  or  to  meet 
it,  for  it  was  learned  that  had  the  team  been  properly 
hitched  there  would  have  been  no  runaway. 

This  shows  how  sermons  may  be  found  every- 
where, if  we  will  only  learn  how  to  put  out  our  hands 
and  take  them  up.  By  further  brooding  over  those 
same  incidents,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  believe  the 
prolific  minded  preacher  might  have  brought  out 
still  other  sermons  on  other  themes. 

Conversing  with  others  on  the  subject  on  which 
preparation  is  being  made  will  not  only  clarify,  but 
freshen  and  stimulate  the  thinker's  own  mind.     Web- 


80  SERMON  PREPARATION 

ster  laid  great  stress  upon  conversation  as  one  of  the 
most  important  sources  of  imagery  as  well  as  of 
positive  knowledge.  He  said  he  had  learned  much 
more  by  talking  with  some  authors  than  he  had  ever 
been  able  to  learn  by  reading  their  books.  It  is  also 
a  good  plan  to  have  every  man  you  talk  with  tell 
you  something  you  do  not  already  know. 

The  preacher  should  also  endeavor  to  have  his 
sermon  as  naturally  progressive  as  a  politician's  ambi- 
tion. Let  it  be  first  the  blade,  then  the  stalk,  then 
the  ear,  and  the  ripe  corn  in  the  ear.  It  should  be 
so  arranged  that  one  part  will  naturally  open  into 
another,  as  the  door  of  one  room  opens  into  the  next, 
and  so  on  in  regular  order,  until  the  end  is  reached. 

By  such  a  progressive  arrangement  of  thought  the 
speaker  is  carried  easily  forward,  his  faculties  have 
continued  liberty,  and  he  is  not  forced  to  pause  in 
the  work  of  addressing  himself  directly  to  the  people. 
The  best  way  to  do  this,  every  man  must  learn  very 
largely  from  his  own  experience,  though  the  experi- 
ence of  others  may  be  valuable  to  him  for  what  it 
may  give  in  practical  suggestion. 

Another  man's  way  often  shows  us  how  we  may 
improve  our  own,  but  we  have  to  work  out  details 
and  results  each  in  his  own  way.  The  way  that  works 
best  with  him  is  the  plan  each  man  will  be  certain  to 
follow,  and  there  would  be  something  wrong  with 
his  head  if  he  didn't.  In  answer  to  the  question  of 
some  one  seeking  his  counsel,  John  Bright  once  made 
this  reply  : 

**  Divide  your  subject  into  not  more  than  two  or 


SERMON  PREPARATION  81 

three  main  sections.  For  each  section  prepare  an 
*  island ' — by  this  I  mean  a  carefully  prepared 
sentence  to  clinch  your  argument.  Make  this  the 
conclusion  of  the  section,  and  trust  yourself  to  swim 
to  the  next  island.  Keep  the  best  island  for  the 
peroration,  and  then  sit  down." 

Some  of  us  will  no  doubt  remember  how  in  our 
first  efforts  at  sermon  preparation  we  had  islands 
enough  to  make  an  archipelago,  with  swimming 
enough  to  tire  out  a  whale,  and  all  because  we  feared 
we  should  not  have  material  enough  to  occupy  the 
time  if  we  went  into  the  pulpit  with  any  less.  To 
review  some  of  those  skyscraper  outlines  to-day  would 
make  us  feel  as  the  old  farmer  did  the  first  time  he 
saw  a  camel,  and  cried  out : 

"  What's  the  matter  with  me  ?  There  can't  be  no 
such  thing  ! " 

But  whatever  method  may  be  used,  it  is  of  great 
importance  that  the  main  plan  of  the  sermon  should 
from  the  beginning  be  so  clearly  in  view  that  it 
comes  up  of  itself  when  needed,  without  having  to 
be  pulled  into  sight  by  a  special  effort. 

Care  should  be  taken  to  have  sufficient  subordinate 
trains  of  thought  to  aid  in  unfolding  and  developing 
the  subject.  Have  in  mind  images  and  illustrative 
instances,  and  whatever  may  be  needed  to  set  forth 
and  enforce  the  theme.  Never  allow  yourself  to  be 
ruled  by  them,  however,  as  many  a  fond  mother  is  by 
her  little  children.  Be  careful  always  to  keep  your- 
self so  free  from  bondage  to  them  that  if  passed  you 
will  not  have  to  go  back  and  reproduce  them. 


82  SERMON  PREPARATION 

Have  plenty  of  thoughts  before  your  mind,  but 
let  them  come  to  your  lips  as  they  will,  and  if  they 
don't  come,  let  them  go.  It  will  not  pay  to  risk 
losing  your  train  by  going  out  on  the  platform  to 
pick  up  an  apple  dropped  from  the  car  window. 

Thoughts  that  have  been  hammered  into  tangible 
shape  by  meditation  and  reflection  are  never  lost. 
They  may  fail  to  come  just  where  you  intended  to  use 
them,  but  they  will  come  again  at  some  other  time, 
and  perhaps  when  more  needed,  as  did  Webster's 
famous  drum-beat  inspiration,  and  meantime  others, 
which  are  very  likely  better,  will  come  in  their  stead, 
and  bring  a  brood  of  others  with  them,  like  turkeys 
coming  home  in  the  fall. 

The  preacher  will  find  it  an  advantage  to  form  the 
habit  of  doing  his  thinking  in  words  to  a  considerable 
extent,  for  the  thoughts  that  have  a  body  are  the 
most  likely  to  live.  If  it  is  your  habit  to  do  much 
of  your  thinking  in  language,  you  will  have  little 
trouble  in  thinking  on  your  feet  before  an  audience. 
A  thought  is  bound  to  be  hazy  and  nebulous  in  the 
mind  of  a  thinker  so  long  as  he  does  not  make  it 
dress  itself  in  proper  garb  and  stand  up  in  the  light 
where  it  can  be  seen.  The  cause  of  muddy  speaking 
is  muddy  thinking.  As  three  men  were  going  out 
of  church  they  fell  to  discussing  the  preacher. 

"  I  never  in  my  life  heard  a  preacher  who  could 
dive  so  deep  into  the  truth  as  Dr.  Blank  does,"  said 
the  first. 

"  Nor  stay  under  longer,"  remarked  the  second. 

"  Or  come  up  drier,"  said  the  third. 


SERMON  PREPARATION  83 

And  all  no  doubt  because  the  unfortunate  man 
had  fallen  into  the  habit  of  doing  his  thinking  in 
nebulous  abstractions  that  it  would  take  a  book  like 
an  algebra  to  express.  So  try  to  form  the  habit  of 
verbal  thinking,  young  man,  if  you  would  have  a 
style  as  clear  as  crystal.     A  colored  man  said  : 

"  I  suah  is  glad  dat  when  de  Lo'd  dun  made  de 
possum  He  didn't  fo'got  to  put  a  tail  on  it  fo'  me  to 
cotch  it  by." 

And  putting  a  thought  in  words  is  giving  it  a  tail 
to  "  cotch  it  by,"  so  that  it  cannot  escape  you.  We 
would  all  speak  well  if  we  could  only  get  up  and  say 
in  telling  words  just  what  we  know.  When  we  hear  an- 
other say  a  thing  well,  we  often  find  ourselves  thinking: 

"  Why,  I  knew  that  myself.  Why  have  I  never 
been  able  to  express  it  as  well  as  he  ?  " 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  if  in  our  meditation 
and  deep  thinking  we  were  in  the  habit  of  putting 
our  thoughts  in  clear  and  expressive  language,  that 
an  imaginary  person  would  readily  understand,  we 
should  be  able  to  give  an  interesting  and  clear  ex- 
pression to  our  thoughts  before  an  audience.  In 
considering  how  to  make  ourselves  understood  by 
others,  we  will  make  the  matter  more  clear  and  vivid 
to  our  own  minds. 

Habitually  putting  thought  in  words  will  not 
only  cultivate  the  power  to  extemporize,  but  will 
greatly  aid  in  concentrating  thought,  and  keeping 
the  mind  at  work  on  the  task  before  it. 

And  yet  in  preparing  a  sermon  that  is  to  be 
spoken,  there  should  be  no  intention  of  preaching  in 


84:  SERMON  PREPARATION 

the  same  language  in  which  the  thinking  has  been 
done.  No  effort  whatever  should  be  made  to  com- 
mit the  language  by  which  you  have  expressed  your 
thoughts  to  yourself.  Have  the  thought  clearly 
pounded  out  and  fixed  in  the  mind  by  having 
looked  at  it  from  all  sides,  and  its  expression  can 
be  safely  left  to  the  time  of  speaking.  Trust  this 
task  to  the  mind  with  the  fullest  confidence,  and  it 
will  not  disappoint  you. 

The  preacher  should  have  a  distinct  and  very 
positive  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  particular 
subject  upon  which  he  is  about  to  preach — which 
of  course  he  has  chosen  with  prayer,  and  wants  to 
use  with  power.  He  should  have  a  conviction  that 
God  has  given  him  a  message  for  that  very  hour, 
and  that  the  truth  he  is  about  to  declare  will  not 
return  to  him  void.  It  may  seem  to  be  a  very 
ordinary  and  unimportant  message,  having  in  it 
little  to  edify  and  enlighten,  but  he  must  not  forget 
that  God  sometimes  takes  a  very  little  worm  to 
thrash  a  mighty  big  mountain. 

The  rod  of  Moses  was  no  more  than  any  other 
until  the  power  of  God  was  put  into  it,  and  then  it 
was  greater  than  Pharaoh  and  all  his  host.  The 
mantle  of  the  Carmelite  was  nothing  in  itself,  but 
when  Elisha  took  it  up  and  in  the  full  assurance  of 
faith  smote  the  river  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  ex- 
pecting something  to  happen,  something  did  happen, 
and  so  the  preacher  should  always  count  upon  the 
power  of  the  Almighty  to  back  up  and  make  effective 
the  humblest  effort  he  may  put  forth. 


SERMON  PREPARATION  85 

Before  Jesus  said,  "  Go  and  do  my  work,"  He 
also  said,  ••  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven 
and  in  earth ;  go  and  do,  and  lo,  I  am  with  you 
always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  age."  And  in  say- 
ing this  He  meant  that  He  would  put  all  needful 
power  into  the  effort  of  the  man  who  was  faithful  in 
doing  His  will,  whether  he  did  great  things  or  little 
ones.  And  whether  he  fights  with  a  lath  or  a  Da- 
mascus blade,  the  preacher  should  always  expect  to 
win  when  he  undertakes  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

So  every  time  you  take  an  arrow  from  your  quiver, 
and  fit  it  to  your  ministerial  bowstring,  take  it  for 
granted  that  it  will  find  its  way  to  somebody's 
vitals,  even  though  you  may  feel  that  it  is  about  the 
poorest  thing  of  the  kind  ever  made.  Expect  some- 
thing to  happen  because  the  Lord  has  promised  that 
His  word  shall  accomplish  something  wherever  it 
goes. 

It  is  well  to  make  sure,  however,  that  it  is  the 
Lord's  word  you  are  giving  in  your  sermon,  and 
not  simply  your  own  notion  of  things,  for  many  a 
preacher  spoils  the  bread  of  life  with  oleomargarine 
of  his  own  make.  God's  word  in  a  sermon  is  the 
best  thing  that  can  be  put  into  it,  and  yet  some 
preachers  fight  as  shy  of  it  in  their  preaching  as  the 
platform  of  a  political  party  does  of  everything  that 
can  by  any  possibility  offend  a  barkeeper  or  a  brewer. 

"  There  isn't  fat  enough  about  that  fellow  to  grease 
a  watch,"  said  a  man  with  billygoat  whiskers,  as  he 
looked  at  the  living  skeleton  in  a  side-show,  and  we 
all  know  that  some  high-priced  sermons  are  being 


86  SERMON  PREPARATION 

preached  in  which  the  recording  angel  couldn't  find 
enough  of  the  marrow  of  the  word  to  look  at.  But 
when  the  preacher  has  conscientiously  and  faithfully 
put  into  his  preaching  what  he  knows  to  be  the 
word  of  his  God,  he  can  be  sure  that  the  power  of 
God  will  be  in  his  preaching. 

So  gird  up  the  loins  of  your  faith,  and  count  upon 
the  hand  of  the  Lord  being  in  your  ministry  when 
you  are  doing  something  that  seems  to  be  poor  and 
little,  just  as  much  as  when  you  feel  quite  certain 
you  are  walking  off  with  the  gates  of  Gaza.  To  note 
what  preaching  has  done  for  the  world,  and  at  the 
same  time  reflect  that  the  most  of  it  has  been  no 
better  than  our  own,  is  to  have  the  conclusion  in- 
evitably forced  upon  us  that  the  miracle  of  the  loaves 
and  fishes  has  been  repeating  itself  from  the  day  the 
fragments  were  gathered  up  until  now. 

So  we  should  never  be  tempted  into  discourage- 
ment or  half-hearted  effort  because  the  sermon  we 
have  prepared  seems  to  fall  so  far  short  of  what  we 
want  it  to  be.  We  are  to  do  our  prayerful  best,  and 
count  on  results,  whether  we  can  see  them  or  not. 
It  is  certainly  as  necessary  that  the  preacher  shall 
preach  by  faith  as  that  the  just  shall  live  by  faith. 

So  let  us  not  dishonor  our  Master  and  discount 
the  truth  we  preach  by  expecting  nothing  to  happen, 
just  because  we  may  not  feel  like  Jehu  in  his  chariot 
while  deHvering  the  sermon.  Whenever  we  shell 
the  woods  with  gospel  shot  we  should  take  it  for 
granted  that  somebody  will  have  to  go  to  the  hos- 
pital, whether  we  ever  know  anything  about  it  or  not. 


SERMON  PREPARATION  87 

Sometimes  a  good  illustration,  even  when  poorly 
given,  may  do  more  than  a  large  and  careful  de- 
velopment of  doctrine  well  presented.  A  portrait 
of  a  Bible  character,  or  any  trait  of  it,  may  ac- 
complish more  than  the  elaboration  of  a  precept  or 
a  lengthy  argument,  or  a  well-given  exposition  of 
a  prophecy.  What  seems  the  least  may  be  the 
mightiest  if  it  has  the  push  of  God's  Spirit  behind 
it.  It  doesn't  take  a  steel  girder  to  draw  a  flash  from 
the  battery.     The  point  of  a  needle  will  do  it. 

Always  remember,  therefore,  that  the  special  truth 
you  are  to  present  has  importance  in  itself,  when 
fulfilling  that  for  which  it  was  designed,  and  your 
message  may  be  God's  means  for  accomplishing 
the  result  toward  which  your  entire  labor  is  tend- 
ing, and  then  give  your  mind  and  soul  to  it,  as 
if  no  other  subject  existed.  Be  of  one  idea  until 
your  sermon  is  ended,  and  let  that  idea  be  the  one 
before  you. 

No  sermon  should  ever  be  preached  in  a  way  that 
does  not  tell  everybody  who  hears  it  exactly  which 
side  of  the  question  under  consideration  the  preacher 
is  on.  There  should  never  be  any  doubt  about  that, 
though  sometimes  there  is.  A  suffragette  at  Denver 
took  her  little  girl  to  church  with  her  one  Sunday 
morning.  At  the  close  of  the  sermon  the  little  one 
put  her  face  up  close  to  her  mother's  and  whispered  : 
"  Mamma,  is  he  for  God  or  against  Him?" 
We  smile  at  that,  but  wouldn't  it  be  dreadful  to 
have  anybody  go  away  asking  themselves  a  similar 
question  after  hearing  one  of  our  sermons  ?    No  mat- 


88  SERMON  PREPARATION 

ter  what  the  subject  may  be,  or  how  able  its  pre- 
sentation, the  sermon  will  be  a  failure  if  anybody  has 
to  leave  the  church  without  being  convinced  that 
what  the  preacher  has  said  is  what  he  honestly  be- 
lieves. 

From  the  beginning  to  the  close  of  the  sermon 
there  should  be  no  uncertain  sound.  Through  voice, 
and  manner,  and  look,  and  the  words  spoken,  the 
preacher's  faith  should  ring  out  like  that  of  the  old 
prophet  when  he  told  his  servant  to  go  again  and 
look  toward  the  sea.  It  should  be  convincingly 
evident  that  the  man  of  God  is  doing  his  best  to  give 
what  he  honestly  believes  to  be  the  word  of  God. 
If  the  preacher  is  not  a  man  of  faith  his  doubts  will 
affect  his  people  like  contagion,  for  it  is  a  law  of  the 
mind  that  what  we  are  always  speaks  much  louder 
than  what  we  say. 

"  Thou  must  thyself  be  true, 

If  thou  the  truth  wouldst  teach. 

Thy  soul  must  overflow. 

If  thou  another  soul  would  reach. 

It  takes  the  overflow  of  heart 
To  give  the  lips  full  speech." 

To  safeguard  against  having  anything  like  an  un- 
certain note  in  his  message,  the  preacher  should 
prayerfully  endeavor  to  have  constantly  with  him  in 
his  preparation  a  sense  of  the  personal  presence  of 
the  Master.  If  we  could  but  realize  that  Jesus  Him- 
self is  with  us  as  certainly  as  He  was  with  the  two 
disciples  on  their  walk  to  Emmaus,  and  that  He  will 


SERMON  PREPARATION  89 

hear  the  sermon  when  we  come  to  preach  it,  how 
differently  we  would  prepare,  and  how  much  more 
effectively  we  would  preach.  Nothing  can  put  the 
power  of  God  into  our  preaching  like  an  unbroken 
consciousness  of  the  presence  of  Him  whom  we 
preach. 

In  an  address  I  heard  some  time  ago,  the  speaker 
told  of  a  mother  who  paid  an  unexpected  visit  to  her 
son  in  college.  He  showed  her  the  buildings  and 
grounds  with  a  great  deal  of  enthusiasm,  and  then 
she  said : 

"  Now  show  me  your  room.  I  want  to  see  where 
you  live." 

He  compHed,  but  with  ill-disguised  hesitation  and 
embarrassment.  The  mother  found  the  room  look- 
ing as  if  it  were  trying  to  give  the  college  yell.  The 
walls  were  decorated  with  ball  bats,  tennis  rackets 
and  other  athletic  paraphernalia,  and  in  addition  to 
these  were  some  pictures  that  it  pained  her  mother's 
heart  to  find  there.  She  was  a  very  sensible  mother, 
however,  and  did  not  give  her  boy  the  lecture  he 
knew  he  deserved.  Soon  afterward  she  sent  him  a 
box  of  things  from  home,  some  of  which  she  knew 
would  make  decorations  for  his  room  he  would  be 
glad  to  have,  and  among  them  was  a  copy  of  Hoff- 
man's boy  Christ. 

Some  weeks  later  the  mother  again  paid  her  col- 
lege boy  a  visit,  and  this  time  was  gladly  taken  to 
his  room  at  once.  The  first  thing  she  saw  as  she 
entered  the  room  was  the  Christ  picture  she  had 
sent,  just  opposite  the  door.    As  she  looked  about 


90  SERMON  PREPARATION 

the  room  she  noted  that  the  ball  bats  were  still  there, 
and  all  the  other  athletic  decorations  were  there,  just 
as  they  had  been,  but  the  fancy  pictures  were  all 
gone.  She  asked  what  had  become  of  them,  and  he 
said : 

*'  Mother,  they  didn't  fit  in  with  Him,  and  I  took 
them  down." 

This  shows  how  a  sense  of  our  Master's  presence 
in  our  preparation  and  preaching  would  be  certain 
to  exalt  and  sanctify  our  ministry.  It  would  compel 
the  keeping  out  of  everything  that  did  not  fit  in  with 
Him.  All  unworthy  ambition,  and  all  unholy  mo- 
tive, and  all  vainglorious  effort  would  have  to  go. 

It  will  also  greatly  help  us  in  our  preparation  to 
remember  that  the  Lord  has  use  for  every  kind  of  a 
man,  just  as  He  had  use  for  everything  from  goats' 
hair  to  gold  in  the  building  of  the  tabernacle,  or  He 
would  not  have  made  so  many  kinds  of  men,  and  our 
kind  may  not  be  so  common  as  we  think. 

So  we  may  take  courage  and  be  grateful  that  we 
do  not  have  to  be  able  and  brilliant  and  great  in  the 
sight  of  men  to  be  vessels  meet  for  the  Master's  use. 
In  the  building  of  a  great  house  more  shingle  nails 
are  used  than  spikes.  The  Lord  does  not  need  great 
gifts  from  us,  but  He  does  want  our  individuality. 

Edison  tried  eighteen  hundred  experiments  with 
various  substances  before  he  could  find  anything 
that  would  produce  the  incandescence  in  the  electric 
hght,  and  then  he  found  it  in  a  soiled  piece  of  card- 
board under  his  feet,  after  having  sent  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth  for  things  to  experiment  with. 


SERMON  PREPARATION  ftl 

One  of  the  most  effective  of  all  personal  powers  is 
personality.  The  stone  from  which  Michael  Angelo 
carved  his  great  statue  of  David  was  taken  from  a 
rubbish  pile  where  it  had  lain  for  years. 

The  Lord  had  a  use,  and  a  great  one,  for  the  im- 
pulsive, self-willed  and  impatient  Simon  Peter,  as 
well  as  for  the  sensitive  and  spiritual  John.  For 
Luke,  with  his  masterly  skill  in  narrative,  as  well  as 
for  Paul,  with  his  immense  dialectic  force.  He  has 
offices  and  services  for  each  of  us,  whether  we  have 
one  talent  or  many.  What  He  wants  is  that  we 
shall  use  to  the  uttermost  limit  every  power  we 
possess.  A  sense  of  His  personal  presence  with  us, 
therefore,  will  make  us  more  natural  and  individual. 
It  will  keep  us  from  wanting  to  be  too  much  like 
Brother  Smith  or  Dr.  Jones  in  our  preaching. 

Emphasis  should  be  put  upon  the  importance  of 
doing  our  best  work  on  the  conclusion  of  the  sermon. 
We  should  plan  for  that  with  all  the  skill  possible, 
and  see  that  there  are  no  big  holes  in  that  part  of  the 
net  for  the  fish  taken  to  wriggle  through.  Nine  men 
out  of  ten  break  down  right  there.  They  do  well  in 
the  beginning  and  middle  of  their  sermons,  but  in 
the  conclusion  they  are  like  a  gun  that  hangs  fire 
until  after  the  aim  is  lost.  They  are  splendid  in 
driving  nails,  but  forget  to  clinch  them.  To  make 
our  preaching  effective,  therefore,  we  should  strive  to 
have  the  conclusion  so  clear  and  convincing  that 
conviction  and  decision  will  be  inevitable  on  the 
part  of  those  who  hear. 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

I  ONCE  knew  a  man  who  had  a  box  at  home 
into  which  he  would  put  all  manner  of  odds 
and  ends  he  found  when  taking  his  daily  walks, 
and  then  when  he  had  to  repair  anything  about  the 
house  he  would  go  to  his  box  and  generally  find  the 
very  thing  he  needed.  A  somewhat  similar  brain 
habit  would  be  a  good  thing  for  every  preacher.  In 
the  accumulation  of  serviceable  material  there  is  noth- 
ing like  a  close  and  thoughtful  observation  for  finding 
and  putting  away  things  that  will  be  sure  to  come 
handy  after  a  while. 

In  this  way  much  that  is  of  practical  value  will  not 
only  be  acquired,  but  skill  in  its  use  will  be  devel- 
oped, just  as  the  young  wife,  who  at  first  could  not 
prepare  much  of  a  meal  with  a  whole  grocery  store 
to  help  her,  can  after  a  few  years'  experience  get  up 
a  good  dinner  from  that  which  would  have  found  its 
way  into  the  garbage  in  her  young  housekeeping 
days.  Material  to  fill  libraries  is  lying  all  about  us, 
as  some  of  our  mineral  and  chemical  resources  have 
so  long  done,  because  so  many  are  like  Peter  Bell : 

**  A  primrose  by  the  river's  brim 
A  yellow  primrose  was  to  him  — 
And  it  was  nothing  more." 
92 


THE  PREACHER^S  BARREL  93 

In  Niagara  Falls  some  see  beauty,  and  glory  and 
God.  Others  see  nothing  but  water.  The  preacher 
who  is  able  to  look  below  the  surface  will  find  ser- 
mons in  stones,  books  in  running  brooks,  and  good  in 
everything,  because  he  has  been  taught  to  see  what 
folks  in  general  cannot  see. 

**  The  poem  hangs  on  the  berry  bush 
When  comes  the  poet's  eye. 
And  the  whole  street  is  a  masquerade 
When  Shakespeare  passes  by." 

The  filling  of  the  barrel  should  always  be  going 
on,  and  with  watchful  care  and  discernment  the 
thoughtful  preacher  may  be  easily  able  to  put  some- 
thing into  it  every  day,  if  it  becomes  a  fixed  habit 
with  him  to  do  it.  He  will  scratch  around  here  and 
there,  as  the  young  chicken  does,  and  when  night 
comes  he  will  have  something  to  show  for  it. 

By  close  observation  the  preacher  will  be  contin- 
ually borrowing  gold,  jewels,  goat's  hair  and  badger 
skins  which  will  serve  a  good  turn  in  building  the 
tabernacle  of  a  successful  ministry.  Here  are  some 
of  the  things  he  will  find  and  put  away  for  use  in  the 
days  to  come : 

He  will  hunt  for  facts  as  you  have  seen  boys  and 
girls  do  for  four-leaf  clover.  Facts  ai'e  stubborn 
things,  and  for  that  very  reason  they  are  good  foun- 
dation material.  When  a  new  fact  is  found  it  is  a 
good  practice  to  reflect  upon  it,  and  turn  it  over  in 
the  mind  until  you  know  it,  and  know  what  it  means 
as  well  as  you  know  how  many  hats  you  have. 


94  THE  PREACHER^S  BARREL 

A  liberal  knowledge  of  facts  relating  to  human 
nature  in  general  is  certain  to  be  of  much  value. 
Neither  in  pubHc  or  private,  by  tongue  or  pen,  can 
men  influence  men,  unless  they  have  acted  upon  the 
principle  that  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man. 
It  was  because  our  Lord  knew  man  and  what  was  in 
him  that  the  common  people  heard  Him  gladly,  and 
they  will  hear  any  man  gladly  who  knows  how  to 
awaken  the  melodies  that  can  come  only  by  touch- 
ing heart-strings. 

The  preacher  should  always  be  gathering  up  facts 
about  human  nature  as  our  grandmothers  gathered 
up  and  preserved  quilt  pieces.  Almost  anything  of 
any  kind  that  has  to  do  with  humanity  will  do  the 
preacher  good  service  at  some  time  or  another.  It 
is  a  good  exercise  to  study  a  man's  face,  as  you 
would  the  map  of  a  strange  country  into  which  you 
are  about  to  travel. 

Expression  is  the  handwriting  of  thought.  Try  to 
learn  to  read  it.  Note  the  little  things ;  the  ordi- 
nary, every-day  common  things,  that  are  as  finger- 
boards pointing  out  the  pathway  of  character.  Try 
to  conceive  from  his  looks  and  acts  the  kind  of 
thoughts  the  man  thinks,  and  the  kind  of  life  he 
would  live  if  he  had  the  power  to  do  as  he  would, 
with  none  to  hinder  or  make  him  afraid.  Then  load 
your  gospel  gun  with  buckshot  for  that  kind  of 
game,  and  when  you  pull  the  trigger  you  will  see 
feathers  fly. 

I  once  had  a  newspaper  friend  who  could  study  a 
face  for  ten  minutes  and  then  write  a  life  chapter 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL  95 

you  would  feel  sure  the  man  himself  had  told  him. 
When  you  study  faces  try  to  imagine  what  the  lives 
have  been  that  have  made  them  what  they  are,  for 
to  be  able  to  read  faces  well  will  enable  you  to  turn 
pages  in  living  books,  and  there  find  sermons  that 
will  go  as  straight  to  the  heart  that  needs  them  as 
the  Philistine  cattle  went  with  the  ark  of  God  to  the 
wheat-field  where  they  were  offered  in  sacrifice. 

In  connection  with  your  study  of  human  nature, 
as  you  mingle  with  men,  it  will  also  be  helpful  to 
notice  how  truly  human  nature  has  been  brought 
out  in  the  Bible.  No  such  book  on  human  nature 
can  be  found  as  God's  book,  for  it  never  makes  a 
mistake  in  its  etchings  of  character.  A  man  told  me 
that  he  had  seen  many  great  actors  in  the  role  of 
Richard  the  Third,  but  that  Edwin  Booth  was  the  only 
one  who  did  not  forget  that  he  was  lame  when  he 
got  into  the  sword  fight.  He,  and  he  only,  carried 
his  limp  all  the  way  through. 

Study  closely  any  character  in  the  Bible  and  you 
will  find  the  characteristic  thing  done  all  the  way 
through.  Take  John  and  Peter  going  to  the  sep- 
ulcher,  for  instance.  Both  ran.  It  would  not  have 
been  natural  for  either  of  them  to  have  walked 
toward  the  garden  that  morning.  John  outran 
Peter  and  arrived  first,  but  instead  of  going  on  into 
the  sepulcher  he  stopped  and  looked  in,  and  was  still 
doing  so  when  Peter  came  up  and  ran  straight  in. 

John  was  the  thoughtful  and  deliberate  one,  and  it 
would  not  have  been  natural  for  him  to  have  done 
otherwise  than  as   he  did.     But  Peter  was  heedless 


06  a?HE  PREAOHER^S  BARREL 

and  impulsive,  and  the  natural  thing  for  him  was  the 
very  opposite  of  what  John  did.  Change  the  story 
so  that  the  actions  are  reversed,  and  the  picture 
would  have  been  spoiled,  for  it  would  not  be  true  to 
the  laws  of  human  nature.  Reverse  the  actions  and 
you  make  each  man  drop  his  limp,  and  this  the  Bible 
never  does. 

The  close  student  of  human  nature  will  find  in  the 
Bible's  superhuman  accuracy  in  its  etchings  of  char- 
acter another  convincing  evidence  that  it  comes  from 
God,  for  man  could  no  more  do  it  than  he  could  put 
the  polish  of  the  thorn  on  a  wooden  toothpick. 

In  his  quest  for  knowledge  that  will  have  power  in 
it  for  him,  the  preacher  would  do  well  to  learn  all  he 
can  about  the  things  that  have  much  to  do  with  the 
daily  life  of  his  people.  A  minister  got  a  shoemaker 
deeply  interested  in  religion  by  being  well  posted  on 
leather. 

The  statement  is  made  in  Ben  Hur  that  every  ex- 
perience in  hfe  has  something  to  do  with  fitting  us 
for  the  accomphshment  of  something  we  could  not 
do  without  its  help,  and  the  thought  is  made  clear  by 
showing  that  there  was  one  supreme  moment  in  the 
chariot  race  when,  to  bring  his  flying  team  around  in 
the  right  way  to  overthrow  his  enemy  and  gain  the 
victory,  Ben  Hur  needed  to  be  unusually  strong  in 
his  forearms,  and  this  strength  he  acquired  by  having 
pulled  on  the  oar  for  three  years  as  a  galley  slave. 

The  storms  of  winter  put  something  into  the  fiber 
of  the  oak  it  could  never  find  in  the  warmth  and 
quiet  of  summer.     Going  to  the  lions'  den  gave  Dan- 


THE  PREACHER^S  BARREL  97 

iel  a  hold  on  the  heart  of  the  king  that  was  Hke  the 
strong  grip  of  the  Hon's  paw  ever  afterward. 

If  the  preacher  goes  with  both  eyes  wide  open,  and 
with  a  heart  that  is  open  as  well,  the  time  he  spends 
in  visiting  shops,  factories,  mills,  coal  mines,  etc.,  will 
put  some  of  the  best  material  into  his  barrel  he  will 
ever  take  out  of  it.  Finding  out  how  many  hard  licks 
a  man  has  had  to  strike  to  get  his  dollar  will  make  it 
much  easier  to  open  the  Bible  in  the  right  place  for  him. 

Actual  knowledge  to  a  degree  of  appreciation,  of 
the  thing  a  man  must  do  every  day  in  his  battle  for 
bread,  has  in  it  a  free  masonry  by  which  a  brother  is 
known  everywhere.  If  I  have  shed  tears  in  the  same 
dark  places  where  another  man  has  wept,  and  have 
been  glad  on  the  bright  hilltops  where  he  has  re- 
joiced, that  is  holy  ground  for  both  of  us.  If  I  have 
been  in  the  same  battle  where  another  man  was 
wounded,  the  moment  we  know  it  we  are  comrades, 
and  can  sup  together  as  others  cannot.  So  let  the 
preacher  not  forget  to  put  into  his  barrel  all  the  fruit 
he  has  taken  from  the  tree  of  knowledge,  whether  it 
be  sweet  or  bitter. 

By  close  observation  something  more  than  a  mere 
inkling  may  be  obtained  of  a  great  many  things  that 
will  help  to  put  the  italics  in  the  right  place  in  the 
sermon.  It  was  a  rule  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
never  to  see  a  man  doing  anything  that  was  useful 
without  observing  how  he  did  it  as  closely  as  if  he 
expected  at  some  time  to  have  to  make  his  living  in 
doing  that  very  thing. 

As  he  was  driving  in  the  country  one  day  his  horse 


98  THE  PREACHER^S  BARREL 

lost  a  shoe,  and  he  stopped  at  a  crossroads  shop  to 
have  it  replaced,  but  the  blacksmith  was  absent.  The 
man  hved  near  by,  however,  so  Mr.  Beecher  ex- 
plained to  his  wife  that  he  was  something  of  a  black- 
smith himself,  and  asked  permission  to  use  the  shop 
and  the  tools,  which  was  readily  granted. 

The  great  man  went  into  the  little  shop,  hung  up 
his  long-tailed  coat  in  a  corner,  and  put  on  the 
smith's  big  leather  apron.  He  then  fired  up  in  the 
forge,  and  put  on  the  shoe  the  best  he  knew  how. 
He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  job,  however,  and  felt 
that  he  could  do  better  next  time,  which  was  true, 
for  he  had  learned  something  from  the  experience. 

When  he  reached  another  shop  he  stopped  to  have 
the  shoe  removed  and  put  on  right.  The  smith,  who 
was  a  big  burly  man,  took  up  the  horse's  foot,  looked 
at  it  a  moment,  then  dropped  it  and  turning  to  the 
amateur  smith  said,  in  a  very  gruff  voice :  *♦  Who 
put  on  that  shoe  ?  "  *'  I  did,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Beecher, 
with  some  fear  and  trembling,  for  he  expected  to  be 
scored  without  mercy.  "  Well,  sir,  my  advice  to  you 
is  to  stick  to  blacksmithing  as  long  as  you  live,  for 
that's  what  God  made  you  for,"  said  the  man.  Mr. 
Beecher  said  he  considered  that  the  greatest  compli- 
ment he  ever  received  in  his  life. 

That  is  the  way  to  acquire  knowledge  and  make  it 
pay  its  house  rent  and  board  ever  afterward.  Mr. 
Beecher  was  all  the  better  preacher  for  that  very  ex- 
perience. More  than  one  man  has  learned  how  to 
strike  while  the  iron  was  hot  in  his  preaching  by  les- 
sons he  learned  in  a  blacksmith  shop. 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL  09 

Lincoln  picked  up  his  vocabulary  in  the  selfsame 
way  that  the  great  preacher  learned  how  to  shoe  that 
horse.  When  he  was  once  asked  how  he  managed 
to  obtain  such  a  remarkable  command  of  language, 
with  his  limited  opportunity,  he  said : 

"  Well,  if  I  have  got  any  power  that  way,  I  will  tell 
you  how  I  suppose  I  came  by  it.  You  see  when  I 
was  a  boy  all  the  local  politicians  used  to  come  to  our 
cabin  to  discuss  politics  with  my  father.  I  used  to 
sit  by  and  listen  to  them,  but  father  wouldn't  let  me 
ask  many  questions,  and  there  were  a  good  many 
things  I  did  not  understand.  Well,  I  would  go  up  to 
my  room  in  the  attic  and  sit  down,  or  pace  back  and 
forth  till  I  made  out  just  what  they  meant.  And 
then  I'd  lie  awake  for  hours,  just  a-putting  their  ideas 
into  words  that  the  boys  around  our  way  could  un- 
derstand." 

The  preacher  who  will  follow  a  similar  course 
toward  all  useful  information  wiU  find  something 
more  than  cracker  crumbs  in  his  barrel  when  he 
shakes  it. 

In  casting  about  for  something  to  put  in  his  barrel 
the  preacher  should  make  it  a  rule  to  learn  something 
from  everybody  he  talks  with,  and  from  everything 
he  falls  in  with.  On  some  of  the  great  railroad  sys- 
tems trains  never  stop  for  water,  but  the  engine  takes 
it  up  from  a  trough  between  the  tracks  while  going 
at  full  speed,  and  in  like  manner  the  preacher  should 
scoop  as  he  runs.  Emerson  said,  "  Every  man  I 
meet  is  my  master  in  some  point,  and  of  that  I  learn 
of  him." 


100  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

The  man  is  bound  to  get  a  diploma  that  will  mean 
something  if  he  knows  how  to  find  a  teacher  every- 
where. He  will  always  be  in  school,  learning  his 
lessons  every  day,  and  learning  them  well.  There 
isn't  a  child  six  years  old  from  whom  the  biggest 
man  in  the  country  may  not  learn  something  worth 
knowing,  and  something  not  to  be  learned  from  any- 
body else.  Ideas  from  which  great  fortunes  have 
sometimes  been  realized  have  been  suggested  by 
little  children. 

It  is  well  to  be  on  the  alert  for  ideas  when  listen- 
ing to  persons  of  intelligence  and  individuality,  no 
matter  whether  they  write  books  or  sweep  streets, 
and  by  doing  this  the  preacher  may  have  a  living 
hbrary,  whose  pages  will  fairly  teem  with  good  things 
that  may  be  had  for  the  taking,  as  the  little  boy  found 
Uncle  Remus  a  better  story-book  than  any  his  parents 
could  buy  for  him.  Hamlet  could  learn  something 
from  a  grave-digger. 

The  preacher  is  doing  something  to  fill  his  barrel 
if  he  cultivates  resourcefulness.  One  of  the  readiest 
speakers  in  the  country  made  himself  so  by  never 
shunning  a  chance  to  make  an  address,  even  when 
the  conditions  were  as  unfavorable  as  they  possibly 
could  be.  The  only  way  to  learn  to  swim  is  to  jump 
into  the  water  and  begin  to  paddle. 

The  preacher  should  endeavor  more  and  more  to 
be  full  of  expedients,  ready  for  any  unexpected  call 
that  comes,  like  a  small  boy  who  was  sent  on  an  old 
mule  to  bring  home  some  watermelons.  He  was 
given  nothing  to  carry  them  in,  but  was  told  to  be 


THE  PKEACHER^S  BARREL  101 

sure  and  bring  two.  But  when  did  a  boy's  wits  ever 
fail  him  where  a  watermelon  was  concerned?  He 
used  his  httle  breeches  for  saddle-bags,  and  was  re- 
warded with  a  big  piece  of  the  core. 

Knowing  his  Bible  well  will  make  any  minister 
like  a  watered  garden.  A  young  preacher  told 
Moody  that  if  he  would  only  stop  going  to  books 
for  his  sermons,  and  would  study  his  Bible  exclusively 
for  six  months  he  would  never  be  the  same  man 
again,  and  the  prophecy  proved  true. 

Moody  began  with  Jeremiah,  and  by  the  time  he 
had  studied  that  book  thirty  days  he  became  so  full 
of  it  that  he  had  to  stop  men  on  the  street  and  pour 
it  out  on  them.  Isn't  that  better  than  scratching 
yourself  bald-headed  in  trying  to  find  something  to 
preach  about  ? 

A  preacher  ought  to  know  his  Bible  as  well  as  the 
street-car  conductor  knows  the  streets  over  which  his 
car  runs.  He  should  know  well  all  the  main  events 
in  the  history  of  the  chosen  people,  and  how  to  get 
good  lessons  out  of  them,  if  called  on  in  a  hurry.  He 
will  be  aided  in  remembering  by  grouping  together 
in  his  mind  the  things  that  happened  in  or  near  cer- 
tain cities,  or  about  certain  mountains.  He  ought  to 
know  about  the  great  battles,  and  what  resulted  from 
them.  Also  the  most  important  things  in  the  lives 
of  the  Bible's  great  men  should  be  fixed  in  the  mind, 
and  occasionally  reflected  on.  The  leading  events  in 
the  time  of  the  Judges,  and  in  the  reigns  of  the  kings 
of  both  Israel  and  Judah,  should  be  put  into  the 
barrel. 


102  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

The  preacher  should  be  able  to  tell  a  good  many 
Bible  stories  well,  and  know  how  to  give  a  prayer- 
meeting  talk  from  any  of  them.  He  needs  also  to 
be  familiar  with  the  most  prominent  psalms,  and  able 
to  do  the  same  with  them.  It  will  greatly  aid  him  to 
be  well  grounded  in  the  leading  parables,  and  mir- 
acles, and  the  sayings  and  discourses  of  our  Lord. 
It  is  almost  imperative  that  he  should  be  able  to  turn 
at  once  to  the  brightest  chapters  for  those  who  are  in 
distress  and  trouble,  and  to  the  sweetest  promises  for 
those  who  are  going  through  deep  waters. 

It  is  not  so  needful,  but  it  would  help  him  greatly 
sometimes  to  have  David  and  Solomon's  counsel  to 
the  young  at  his  tongue's  end.  He  should  also  be 
able  to  find  the  verses  that  make  plain  the  way  to  the 
soul  that  is  earnestly  seeking  Christ. 

In  short  the  preacher  should  endeavor  to  be  as  fa- 
miliar with  his  Bible  as  he  is  with  his  study,  and  as 
able  to  put  his  hand  on  anything  he  wants  in  one 
place  as  the  other.  As  Peter  Cartwright  blazed  his 
way  from  one  preaching  place  to  another  through 
the  wilderness,  so  the  preacher  ought  to  be  able  to 
find  his  way  anywhere  in  his  Bible  by  land-marks 
he  has  made  familiar. 

Another  helpful  thing  is  to  study  the  analogies  in 
Scripture  between  real  and  spiritual  life.  Take  the 
call  of  Abraham,  for  instance,  and  notice  how  every- 
thing in  his  hfe  is  coincident  with  what  happens  in 
spiritual  life. 

God  called  him  to  leave  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  and  go 
to  an  unknown  land  that  would  be  shown  him,  and 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL  103 

there  you  have  the  sinner's  call  to  repentance.  Both 
are  in  a  far  country  when  the  divine  call  reaches 
them.  Abraham  was  an  idolator,  and  lived  among 
idolators,  and  so  does  every  sinner.  Abraham  was 
rich  in  flocks  and  herds ;  and  so  is  the  sinner,  in  his 
talents  and  worldly  experiences,  from  which  he  will 
take  many  good  sheep  to  offer  to  the  Lord  when  he 
reaches  Bethel. 

Abraham  was  charged  to  leave  his  kindred,  and 
the  sinner  must  turn  his  back  on  the  sinful  pleasures 
and  pursuits  that  are  the  same  as  bone  of  his  bone 
and  flesh  of  his  flesh.  Abraham  tried  to  take  his  fa- 
ther and  some  of  the  rest  of  the  family  with  him,  and 
so  too  does  the  sinner  hold  on  to  the  "  old  man  "  and 
other  kindred  belonging  to  his  life  in  the  world,  and 
as  Abraham  was  delayed  at  Haran  until  Terah  gave 
up  the  ghost,  so  the  sinner  never  can  enter  the  Canaan 
of  new  birth  until  his  self-will  is  dead. 

In  like  manner  any  number  of  analogies  can  be 
found  right  along  that  will  show  the  Bible  to  be  a 
Hving  book  as  it  is  opened  to  the  people. 

Almost  every  history  will  be  found  to  correspond 
to  spiritual  life  in  a  similar  way,  for  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  made  up  of  soul  pictures  in  every  variety  and 
shade.  No  conversion  ever  took  place  that  is  not 
pictured  there.  Every  trial,  every  temptation,  every 
backsliding  and  every  victory;  they  are  all  there. 
Trace  some  of  them  out  and  the  precious  oil  will 
begin  to  flow  and  never  stop  as  long  as  you  can  find 
a  vessel  to  put  it  in.  Nothing  will  put  so  much  good 
meal  in  the  preacher's  barrel  as  knowing  his  Bible  well. 


104  THE  PREACHEK'S  BARREL 

In  his  general  reading  the  preacher  will  find  it 
helpful  to  get  in  the  habit  of  noting  apt  and  striking 
thoughts  that  are  well  expressed,  and  in  his  own 
books  marking  those  especially  that  are  full  of  meat 
for  him,  indexing  on  a  fly  leaf  those  he  will  be  most 
likely  to  want  to  refer  to.  It  is  a  profitable  exercise 
to  review  the  markings  occasionally  and  very 
thoughtfully.     Do  the  same  with  good  illustrations. 

It  is  well  also  to  keep  a  note-book  in  which  to 
record  good  thoughts  found  in  books  that  do  not 
belong  to  you.  Do  as  the  bee  does.  Miss  no  chance 
to  take  home  honey  to  your  hive.  Never  pass  a 
proverb  or  terse  saying  without  turning  it  over  in 
your  mind,  as  a  bear  is  said  to  do  with  a  dead  man, 
to  see  if  there  is  any  life  in  it  for  you.  Do  not 
merely  commit  it,  but  get  at  the  thought.  Crack  it 
as  you  would  a  nut,  and  take  the  meat  out  of  it. 

The  habit  of  reflection  is  as  good  a  thing  for  the 
preacher  as  the  X-ray  is  for  the  doctor,  for  by  it  he 
can  go  down  to  the  very  bone  and  marrow  of  a 
matter.  It  clarifies,  deepens  and  fixes  in  the  memory 
that  which  would  make  slight  impression  and  be 
soon  lost,  as  was  the  Chinaman's  ice  he  put  in  the 
sun  to  dry. 

Reading  without  reflection  is  like  plowing  with  a 
crooked  stick.  It  is  a  good  plan  to  spend  some  time 
in  reflection  every  day,  for  reflection  is  to  the  inner 
man  what  the  chewing  of  the  cud  is  to  the  cow.  It 
prepares  the  grass  for  sticking  to  the  ribs.  A  re- 
flective habit,  if  followed  up,  will  result  in  settled 
opinions  about  important  things,  for  foggy  and  hazy 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL  105 

notions  will  be  swept  away,  as  the  fan  cleans  the 
wheat. 

The  man  who  would  have  his  preaching  help 
others  must  be  able  to  give  a  reason  that  will  have 
weight  with  the  jury.  To  see  a  thing  clearly  your- 
self is  the  best  preparation  for  making  others  see  it 
just  as  well.  Reflection  carefully  sorts,  sifts  and 
assimilates. 

The  ability  to  remember  things  by  association 
should  be  cultivated.  Tie  your  knowledge  up  in 
bunches  with  some  kind  of  a  cord  of  association,  as 
by  comparing  and  contrasting  things  with  each 
other.  Make  one  thing  as  naturally  bring  another 
as  the  horse  does  the  wagon  and  the  cow  the  calf. 
By  this  means  almost  anything  you  can  see,  hear, 
taste  or  handle  may  be  turned  into  a  net  that  will 
bring  up  good  fish  out  of  the  sea. 

A  man  of  my  acquaintance  once  entertained  a 
company  of  people  for  an  hour  by  taking  up  certain 
articles  which  they  had  placed  in  a  hat,  and  telling 
the  interesting  things  each  suggested  to  him.  Such 
a  habit  would  load  a  man  for  bear,  and  make  him 
ready  for  any  kind  of  a  sudden  call  that  might 
come. 

Everything  under  the  sun  can  be  made  to  remind 
you  of  something  else,  if  you  will  practice  on  it.  It 
doesn't  take  much  imagination  to  look  at  a  fish-hook 
and  see  a  black  bass.  Associations  may  be  readily 
made  by  keeping  the  attention  on  a  thing  long 
enough  at  least  to  note  its  most  important  character- 
istics. 


106  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

A  man  who  was  about  to  address  a  Sunday-school 
began  by  saying : 

"  What  shall  I  say  ?  "  when  a  little  girl,  who  had 
just  been  having  her  first  experience  with  declama- 
tions, blurted  out,  "  What  do  you  know  ?  " 

The  preacher  who  wants  to  fill  his  barrel  with 
things  that  he  can  get  out  as  he  needs  them  should 
be  continually  asking  himself  that  same  question  : 

*•  What  do  I  know  about  this  ?  In  what  way 
does  it  differ  from  that  ?  And  in  what  respect  does 
it  resemble  something  else  ?  " 

Such  questions  make  a  good  trident  with  which  to 
spear  many  good  fish.  In  some  such  way  every  new 
scrap  of  information  may  be  tied  to  something  al- 
ready known. 

There  should  be  much  reflection  upon  everything 
that  is  considered  worth  preserving.  It  should  be 
turned  over  in  the  mind  and  looked  at  from  all  sides, 
and  tried  in  this  way  and  that,  as  a  woman  does  with 
a  new  hat,  before  she  makes  up  her  mind  whether 
she  wants  to  wear  it.  Ask  and  answer  all  the  ques- 
tions about  it  you  can.  The  where,  the  whence  and 
the  why,  the  who  and  the  how  ? 

The  preacher  should  work  incessantly  in  building 
up  his  vocabulary.  He  should  be  on  the  lookout  for 
a  new  word  as  a  young  mother  is  for  baby's  first 
tooth,  and  when  he  finds  it  he  should  make  it  his  own 
by  immediately  baptizing  it  and  taking  it  into  full 
membership  without  any  probation.  Like  a  new 
breastpin  it  should  be  used  at  the  first  chance,  and 
not  kept  waiting  until  Sunday.     A  new  word  is  like 


THE  PREACHEirS  BARREL         107 

a  new  tooth-brush  ;  never  entirely  your  own  until  you 
have  used  it,  and  then  it  will  not  be  taken  away 
from  you. 

New  words  should  be  used  in  such  relations  that 
the  reflex  influence  upon  the  mind  will  be  strong. 
Words  are  of  little  use  until  they  carry  an  armful  of 
ideas  with  them,  and  then  they  are  hke  our  own 
children.  No  matter  what  the  preacher  may  have  in 
his  barrel  he  will  need  the  help  of  the  best  vocabulary 
he  can  acquire  to  get  it  out  and  properly  present  it 
to  his  congregations. 

Like  a  good  dinner  a  good  thought  is  all  the  bet- 
ter for  a  good  setting.  Many  a  regal  thought  is 
treated  like  a  peasant  because  it  comes  to  us  in 
shabby  garb.  I  think  it  was  Charles  Dudley  Warner 
who  said,  "  There  are  some  words  that  are  palaces  to 
dwell  in ;  treasure  houses  to  explore.  A  single  word 
may  be  a  window  through  which  we  may  behold  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them." 

Sometimes  a  word  may  speak  what  volumes  have 
attempted  in  vain  to  utter.  There  may  be  years  of 
crowded  passion  in  a  phrase,  and  half  a  life  may  be 
concentrated  in  a  sentence.  Let  the  preacher  there- 
fore be  sure  to  put  into  his  barrel  plenty  of  apt  and 
expressive  words,  as  Joseph  stored  up  the  good  corn 
of  Egypt,  for  one  is  as  much  a  wise  provision  against 
famine  as  the  other. 

The  preacher  can  have  no  more  effective  self-dis- 
cipline than  that  which  comes  of  his  thinking  of 
something  to  say  to  his  people.  This  will  keep  him 
on  the  alert  for  ideas  out  of  which  to  build  his  ser- 


108  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

mons.  As  a  shoemaker  never  looks  at  a  side  of 
leather  without  thinking  of  how  it  could  be  cut  up 
to  the  best  advantage,  and  a  carpenter  never  passes 
a  lumber-yard  without  musing  over  the  houses  he 
could  build ;  and  as  an  editor  never  comes  upon  a 
thought  or  incident  without  considering  how  he  can 
make  it  give  him  a  half  a  column  or  more,  so  the 
preacher  will  jpe  continually  on  the  alert  for  every- 
thing that  can  be  made  to  bring  a  grist  to  his  mill. 

Wherever  he  is,  he  will  be,  subconsciously  at  least, 
preparing  for  the  sermons  he  will  some  time  have  to 
preach,  as  Daniel  Webster  prepared  his  great  drum- 
beat climax  years  before  he  used  it.  In  this  cease- 
less storing  up  of  corn  against  the  day  of  famine  he 
will  say : 

"  Here  is  a  common  thing.  How  can  I  get  some- 
thing uncommon  out  of  it?  Here  is  something  never 
before  heard  of.  How  can  I  get  a  striking  and  effect- 
ive lesson  from  it  ?  Here  is  a  fine  illustration  that  I 
ought  to  make  sure  of.  Let  me  see ;  how  can  I  best 
tell  it  with  effect  in  a  sermon,  and  what  point  could 
I  press  home  with  it  ?  I  will  tell  it  to  myself,  and 
see  what  there  is  in  it." 

So  he  goes  over  it  step  by  step,  and  idea  by  idea, 
mentally,  silently,  thoughtfully.  He  tells  it  to  him- 
self in  the  very  best  words  he  can  command,  and 
seeks  to  make  a  gem  of  effective  simplicity  out  of  it ; 
a  good  picture  made  by  a  stroke  or  two.  And  it  is 
this  doing  such  things  at  a  dash  that  tells,  and  it  is 
this  that  the  preacher  learns  how  to  do  in  learning 
,tiow  to  think  of  something  to  say.     The  more  he 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL  109 

does  at  it  in  this  deliberate  conscious  disciplinary- 
way  the  sooner  it  will  become  easy,  and  the  easier  it 
will  become. 

In  the  culmination  of  a  climax,  Wendell  Phillips, 
as  if  looking  for  something  to  illuminate  his  thought, 
suddenly  stretched  out  his  hand  over  the  table  at  his 
side,  placed  a  finger  in  a  glass  of  water,  raised  it 
slowly,  and  deliberately  watched  a  single  drop  fall 
back  into  the  goblet.  His  audience  watched  him 
breathlessly  and  were  thrilled  to  the  quick.  When  a 
friend  afterward  spoke  of  what  a  happy  inspiration 
it  was,  Phillips  smiled  and  said : 

♦'  I  had  practiced  it  before  the  glass  until  I  had  it 
down  fine." 

The  happiest  thoughts  have  been  well  thought  out 
beforehand,  and  the  best  impromptu  speeches  are 
best  when  hammered  to  a  red  heat  in  advance.  Ser- 
mons that  have  been  the  result  of  musing  until  the 
fire  burned  are  the  most  likely  to  make  the  heart  of 
the  hearer  burn  while  they  are  being  delivered. 

It  is  remarkable  how  the  simple  fact  that  you  will 
have  to  speak  at  a  certain  time  will  help  you  to 
create  the  address  you  will  make.  You  will  think 
of  it  in  your  lying  down  and  in  your  rising  up.  It 
will  run  through  your  dreams  like  measles  through  a 
boarding-house,  and  will  stick  to  you  day  and  night. 
You  will  forget  the  letter  your  wife  gave  you  to  mail, 
but  you  will  not  forget  that  you  are  elected  to  be  on 
deck  at  a  certain  time  v/ith  an  address. 

For  a  while  your  head  will  seem  to  have  no  more 
in  it  than  some  churches  have  when  the  last  bell 


110  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

rings  on  prayer-meeting  night,  but  good  thoughts, 
Hke  late  comers,  will  begin  to  filter  in  after  a  while. 
You  thought  all  your  thinking  was  fruitless,  but  it 
wasn't ;  it  never  is.  When  the  time  came  you  were 
as  eager  to  start  as  a  blooded  horse.  The  incubation 
was  going  on  all  the  while,  though  you  didn't  know 
it.  The  hen  was  on  the  nest,  and  the  egg  was  being 
hatched. 

Putting  yourself  under  bond  to  be  on  hand  with 
something  to  say  is  a  great  help  in  learning  how  to 
think  of  something  to  say.  The  moment  you  com- 
mit yourself  you  have  hitched  your  wagon  to  a  star. 
Then  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  hold  steady  and  keep 
the  wheels  on  the  ground,  and  things  are  bound  to 
move,  and  move  in  the  right  way. 

While  you  are  thinking  of  something  to  say,  you 
will  find  that  every  speech  or  sermon  you  hear,  and 
every  book  you  pick  up,  and  every  conversation  you 
hear,  and  every  newspaper  you  read  will  put  some- 
thing in  your  barrel.  It  may  not  be  just  what  you 
would  like  when  it  comes,  but  it  will  do,  and  often 
turns  out  to  be  better  meal  than- you  take  it  to  be. 
If  something  better  comes  you  will  take  it  and  use  it, 
but  if  not,  you  will  get  along.  You  will  do  better 
next  time  by  having  done  your  best  now. 

This  thinking  habit  will  be  in  full  operation  while 
you  are  hearing  other  speakers.  It  will  quicken 
both  your  eyes  and  ears.  You  will  note  their  vocab- 
ulary, their  illustrations,  and  how  they  manage  their 
thought  as  closely  as  one  driver  observes  how  an- 
other handles  his  horses. 


THE  PREACHER^S  BARREL  111 

You  will  be  quick  to  note  what  takes  and  what 
falls  flat.  Their  thoughts  will  stir  up  others  quite 
different  in  you,  and  dry  land  for  your  planting 
and  reaping  will  come  up  out  of  their  sea.  What 
they  say  will  give  you  something  to  say,  whether 
they  say  anything  or  not. 

While  you  are  thinking  of  something  to  say,  it 
will  not  be  necessary  to  "  read  up  "  on  the  subject 
of  your  address  if  you  are  reasonably  well  posted 
beforehand. 

Read  the  best  English  language  you  can  find. 
Read,  write  and  talk  in  the  best  vocabulary  that 
comes  to  you.  There  is  always  room  for  improve- 
ment in  the  words  of  our  mouths,  as  well  as  in  the 
meditations  of  our  hearts.  Reading,  writing  and 
conversing,  with  the  underthinking  going  on,  creates 
facility  and  felicity  in  the  use  of  language  in  public. 
The  memory  becomes  charged  with  words,  images, 
metaphors,  ideas  and  phrases  that  press  for  utterance 
under  the  stimulus  of  the  occasion  and  the  excite- 
ment of  ambition  to  do  we'll. 

As  new  illustrations  are  found  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
spend  a  moment  or  two  in  thinking  of  how  they 
may  be  used  ;  of  just  what  turn  of  thought  may  be 
brought  out  with  them. 

"  The  habit  of  reflecting  upon  anecdotes,  incidents 
or  facts  of  any  kind  as  illuminators  of  thought  (says 
Dr.  Buckley),  and  not  merely  their  value  as  proof,  or 
their  intrinsic  interest  as  information,  will  so  impress 
them  upon  the  mind,  that  as  the  time  comes  for  an 
address,  the  speaker  will  have  no  difficulty  in  making 


112  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

a  selection  which  by  its  novelty  will  stimulate  the 
attention  of  the  hearer,  and  perhaps  influence  his 
feelings  or  judgment.  And  then  should  he  at  any 
time  be  compelled  to  speak  without  adequate  prepa- 
ration, illustrations  will  flow  to  his  lips  under  the 
guidance  of  the  ruling  thought,  requiring  only  that 
prompt  and  intelligent  discrimination  in  their  use 
which  is  the  habit  of  his  life." 

Most  men  know  enough  to  make  a  good  speech 
about  almost  anything  at  the  drop  of  a  hat,  if  they 
could  only  think  of  the  right  thing  to  say  while  on 
their  feet,  as  well  as  they  can  five  minutes  after  they 
sit  down,  but  not  having  anticipated  the  occasion 
they  are  all  at  sea  when  called  upon  unexpectedly. 
In  a  large  union  thanksgiving  service,  the  minister 
who  was  to  preach  the  sermon  asked  the  pastor  of 
the  church  in  which  the  service  was  being  held  to 
make  the  opening  prayer,  and  the  good  brother 
excused  himself  by  saying,  *'  I'm  not  prepared,"  and 
he  was  a  Methodist  preacher  too. 

Of  course  there  are  circumstances  under  which 
almost  any  man  may  be  taken  at  great  disadvantage, 
but  there  are  many  unexpected  things  which  can  be 
expected  and  prepared  for,  as  William  Tell  put  an 
arrow  under  his  coat  for  Gesler,  while  the  apple  was 
being  placed  on  the  head  of  his  boy. 

It  would  prevent  many  a  cold  sweat  if  the  preacher 
would  at  least  put  something  in  a  little  keg  that  he 
can  carry  under  his  long-tailed  coat,  for  as  many 
different  kinds  of  unexpected  calls  as  he  can  think 
of.     Keeping  a  record  of  unexpected  calls,  so  that 


THE  PREACHER^S  BARREL  113 

you  may  be  able  to  see  where  lightning  has  struck 
in  the  past,  is  a  good  thing,  for  history  is  liable  to 
repeat  itself.  That  is  why  they  have  cyclone  cellars 
in  Kansas. 

You  may  be  called  upon  when  a  brother  pastor  is 
to  be  installed,  or  welcomed  home  from  Europe  or 
Jerusalem.  So  whittle  out  an  arrow  in  good  time 
and  put  it  under  your  vest  for  that.  When  the  new 
town  hall  is  opened  his  honor  the  mayor  may  de- 
pend on  you  for  a  little  spread  eagle  work,  and  the 
cares  of  state  may  be  so  heavy  upon  him  that  he 
will  forget  to  mention  it  until  the  very  moment 
when  he  calls  on  you  to  touch  off  the  fireworks. 
Had  you  only  had  notice  last  week  you  could 
have  had  some  brilliant  pinwheels  ready  as  well  as 
not. 

Take  time  by  the  forelock,  and  put  something  in 
your  little  keg  that  will  keep  your  knees  from 
knocking  together  "  when  the  evil  days  come,  and 
thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them."  If 
they  don't  dedicate  the  new  town  hall,  there  will  be 
a  new  schoolhouse,  or  a  new  hotel,  or  some  other 
kind  of  a  chance  to  use  that  speech,  somewhere, 
some  time,  for  nothing  is  ever  altogether  lost,  ex- 
cept the  money  you  don't  get  for  marrying  folks. 

Every  preacher  ought  to  have  a  dozen  or  more 
sermons  too,  that  he  could  preach,  if  awakened  at 
midnight  and  shot  into  the  pulpit  as  firemen  are 
dropped  from  the  loft  in  which  they  sleep.  I  once 
saw  a  bishop  called  on  unexpectedly  to  follow  the 
regular  orator  at  a  fourth  of  July  celebration.     The 


114  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

orator  did  well,  but  the  bishop  did  better,  for  he  had 
plenty  of  powder  in  his  keg. 

Many  a  man,  however,  has  intellectual  wealth  that 
is  not  available  because  he  has  not  trained  himself 
to  be  ready  to  appropriate  it.  George  MacDonald 
tells  of  a  castle  in  which  lived  an  old  man  and  his 
son,  and  although  they  owned  it  they  were  starving 
along,  like  a  lazy  preacher  on  Hard  Scrabble  Circuit, 
and  hving  at  a  half  dying  rate.  Yet  there  had  been 
concealed  within  the  castle  by  remote  ancestors,  for 
future  need,  very  costly  jewels.  Although  close  to 
abundance  they  were  in  constant  famine  because 
they  did  not  know  of  their  wealth  or  where  to 
find  it. 

How  much  this  is  like  the  sad  state  of  some 
preachers  who  are  kept  scratching  at  the  bottom 
of  their  barrel  harder  than  the  widow  did  to  get 
meal  enough  to  make  a  cake  for  the  prophet's 
supper,  and  yet  they  hve  in  a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  but  never  having  anointed  their 
eyes  with  just  the  right  kind  of  eye  salve  they  fail 
to  see  the  abundance  all  about  them. 

It  will  make  for  the  strength  and  vigor  of  the  mind 
not  to  keep  it  thinking  along  the  same  line  all  the 
time.  There  is  exhilaration  in  new  thought  as  well 
as  in  new  work,  and  the  mind  tires  of  a  steady  diet 
of  liver  and  greens  just  as  much  as  we  do.  On  this 
account  it  is  well  at  times  to  reflect  on  something  not 
before  thought  of — or  at  least  not  recently.  This 
will  rest  and  rejuvenate  the  brain  as  a  new  physical 
exercise  quickens  the  body.     It  will  keep  the  in- 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL  115 

tellectual  powers  from  going  down  like  a  punctured 
tire.  There  will  be  glad  activity,  buoyant  energy 
and  resiliency.  Thoughts  will  come  rapidly,  and 
will  have  spears  in  their  hands  when  they  do  come. 

The  Christian  ministry  is  unlike  any  other  calling 
in  the  world  in  this,  that  nothing  in  the  way  of 
knowledge,  no  matter  how  or  where  gained,  is 
irrelevant  to  it.  Like  the  broken  bits  of  stained 
glass  out  of  which  the  apprentice  made  a  window 
that  became  a  masterpiece,  everything  the  preacher 
has  learned  will  sooner  or  later  find  its  place,  as  he 
tries  to  do  his  work  according  to  the  pattern  shown 
in  the  mount. 

Just  as  there  was  need  in  the  tabernacle  for  every- 
thing that  Israel  carried  out  of  Egypt,  from  the 
goats'  hair  to  the  gold,  so  there  is  need  in  the  pulpit 
for  everything  the  preacher  can  bring  with  him  to  his 
great  work  m  the  way  of  knowledge  and  experience. 
This  great  truth  from  Solomon  has  no  more  certain 
realization  in  a  downright  practical  way  anywhere 
in  life  than  it  has  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ : 

"  Happy  is  the  man  that  findeth  v^isdom,  and  the 
man  that  gettetli  understanding.  For  the  merchan- 
dise of  it  is  better  than  the  merchandise  of  silver, 
and  the  gain  thereof  than  fine  gold.  She  is  more 
precious  than  rubies ;  and  all  the  things  thou  canst 
desire  are  not  to  be  compared  unto  her.  She  is  a 
tree  of  life  to  them  that  lay  hold  upon  her,  and  happy 
is  every  one  that  retaincth  her." 

Let  the  preacher  learn  as  much  as  he  can  about 
everything  possible,  and  even  though  his  appointment 


116  THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL 

may  take  him  into  the  heart  of  a  desert  he  will  find 
living  springs  there.  His  knowledge,  like  the  rod  of 
Moses,  will  give  him  power  to  smite  the  flinty  rock 
and  make  it  pour  forth  a  flowing  stream  of  good. 
Knowledge  is  power  only  to  those  who  know  how 
to  put  on  the  harness  and  hitch  it  up. 

I  once  read  a  story  of  how  a  half  dozen  scientists 
were  cast  away  on  a  desert  island,  and  with  nothing 
but  bare  hands  and  pocket-knives  and  the  knowledge 
they  took  with  them,  they  soon  managed  to  obtain 
for  themselves  the  comforts  they  had  enjoyed  at 
home. 

They  found  the  island  rich  in  iron  and  other  useful 
ores,  and  having  the  wisdom  to  know  what  it  was,  and 
what  to  do  with  it,  they  made  tools  with  which  to 
work,  and  with  these  tools  they  made  whatever  else 
they  wanted.  They  made  saws  and  axes,  with  which 
in  due  time  they  made  a  sawmill,  with  which  they 
made  lumber  out  of  which  they  built  their  home. 

They  found  wild  plants  and  shrubs  which  they 
cultivated  into  useful  grains  and  fruits,  and  so  they 
kept  on  until  they  made  their  barren  island  to 
blossom  as  the  rose,  and  as  those  men  found  wealth 
like  that  of  Aladdin  in  the  desert,  so  the  preacher 
who  is  resourceful  and  has  practical  wisdom  will  be 
able  to  find  homiletic  material  wherever  he  goes. 

The  difference  between  success  and  failure  is  the 
ability  to  get  much  out  of  Httle.  One  of  the  best 
addresses  to  men  I  ever  heard  began  with  the  story 
of  a  lop-eared  yellow  dog  with  a  broken  tail,  who 
would  nan  to  pick  up  sticks  and  stones  thrown  by 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL         117 

his  master.  This  Httle  story,  told  while  one  would 
draw  a  breath  or  two,  made  the  backbone  for  the 
address.  Some  very  common  and  homely  things 
can  be  made  to  do  good  service  if  they  once  get  into 
the  preacher's  barrel. 

A  single  potato  carried  to  England  by  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  has  multiplied  into 
food  for  millions.  A  drop  of  ink  is  nothing  in  itself, 
but  if  a  thought  gets  into  it  it  will  move  the  world. 
Trifles  hght  as  air  may  to  a  fertile  mind  suggest 
great  things.  Bits  of  broken  glass  used  to  amuse 
children  led  to  the  invention  of  the  kaleidoscope. 
A  ship  worm  boring  a  piece  of  wood  suggested  the 
idea  of  a  tunnel  under  the  Thames  at  London. 

A  Yankee  soldier  in  the  Civil  War  observed  a  bird 
hulling  rice,  and  shot  it.  Taking  its  bill  for  a  model 
he  invented  a  hulling  machine  which  has  revolution- 
ized the  rice  business.  A  thoughtful  man  studied  a 
freight  car  for  a  few  minutes  while  waiting  for  his 
train,  and  from  what  he  learned  all  the  steel  cars  in 
the  world  have  come.  Small  things  are  great  when 
there  is  greatness  back  of  the  eye. 

Jesus  could  see  a  sermon  in  a  sparrow,  the  most 
worthless  bird  that  flies.  And  yet  the  world  is  full 
of  preachers  who  are  trying  to  make  butter  by  milk- 
ing a  dry  cow.  If  the  salt  has  lost  its  savor  the 
sooner  it  goes  to  the  dump  heap  the  better. 

There  is  a  legend  of  an  artist  who  wasted  years  in 
hunting  for  a  fine  piece  of  sandal  wood  out  of  which 
to  carve  a  Madonna.  Just  when  he  was  about  to 
give  up  and  leave  the  dream  of  his  hfe  unrealized,  a 


118  THE  PREACHER^S  BARREL 

still  small  voice  within  him  whispered  that  he  should 
carve  the  Madonna  from  a  block  of  oak  wood  taken 
from  the  wood-pile.  He  obeyed,  and  produced  a 
masterpiece  from  a  stick  of  common  fire-wood. 

Many  of  us  waste  our  time  and  miss  our  oppor- 
tunities in  looking  for  sandal  wood  when  common 
logs  that  would  work  up  well  are  lying  all  about  us. 

One  of  the  finest  pieces  of  wood-carving  I  ever 
saw  was  made  from  a  fence  rail,  with  no  other  tools 
than  a  chisel  and  a  jack-knife.  Chicago  has  an  artist 
who  is  called  the  farmer  painter,  who  has  made  pic- 
tures that  have  brought  him  fame,  medals  and  money, 
and  they  are  all  paintings  of  the  common  things 
found  on  every  farm,  like  baskets  of  corn,  old  copper 
kettles,  squashes,  pumpkins  and  so  on.  There  is 
plenty  of  gold  in  the  ground  we  walk  on  if  we  only 
had  an  X-ray  vision  that  could  penetrate  it  deep 
enough. 

The  preacher  will  find  plenty  to  put  in  his  barrel 
if  he  will  only  learn  to  see  the  greatness  there  is  in 
common  things.  The  greatness  that  the  Master  was 
always  finding  and  using  for  material  in  His  sermons 
is  everywhere.  There  was  nothing  so  small  that  He 
could  not  get  a  great  lesson  out  of  it,  and  in  doing 
this  He  was  teaching  us  how  to  preach.  A  woman 
making  bread  ;  a  farmer  sowing  seed ;  children  play- 
ing in  the  market-place ;  a  little  boy's  lunch ;  a 
shepherd  taking  care  of  his  sheep.  Nothing  was  too 
homely  or  simple  to  have  a  place  in  the  matchless 
discourses  He  gave,  and  if  He  were  here  now  as  He 
was  then,  it  would  be  the  same. 


THE  PREACHER'S  BARREL  119 

Everything  that  is  famihar  to  the  daily  life  of  our 
time  would  be  used.  Dynamos  and  motors,  door- 
bells, street  cars,  automobiles,  milk  wagons,  cash 
registers  and  electric  lights.  Town  clocks,  lawn- 
mowers,  telephones,  office  buildings,  fireworks,  gar- 
den hose,  search-lights.  Fourth  of  July  accidents, 
and  everything  else  that  would  serve  his  purpose 
would  be  used. 

He  showed  us  how  to  do  it,  and  we  ought  to  be 
quick  to  catch  the  meaning  of  the  lesson,  and  look 
about  us  for  the  bread  that  is  scattered  everywhere, 
as  the  manna  was  in  the  wilderness.  A  man  with 
the  divine  afflatus  can  find  poetry  in  his  own  back 
yard. 


VI 
WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

I  DO  not  assume  to  be  an  authority  on  the  sub- 
ject discussed  in  this  chapter,  but  a  boy  can 
hold  a  Hght  for  a  man  to  work  by,  and  it  may 
be  that  what  I  have  picked  up  here  and  there,  in 
observing  many  preachers  of  many  kinds,  will  enable 
me  to  drop  a  thought  or  two  into  some  of  your  pure 
minds  that  will  do  for  you  something  like  what  the 
penny  does  for  the  slot  machine. 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  no  reliable  definition  of 
just  what  failure  in  the  ministry  is,  and  I  don't  know 
that  there  is  any  good  reason  why  there  should  be, 
for  every  man  has  his  own  opinion  about  it  anyhow, 
and  what  might  seem  to  one  to  be  great  failure 
would  to  another  pass  for  equally  great  success.  It 
all  depends  upon  the  view-point,  and  the  size  of  the 
beam  that  may  happen  to  be  in  the  eye  that  looks. 

As  a  Jew  read  his  newspaper  he  struck  the  head- 
line, *'  Is  Marriage  a  Failure  ?  "  He  pondered  the 
matter  for  a  moment,  and  then  said  : 

"  Veil,  if  de  voman  vas  rich  I  don't  know  but  vat 
it  vas  yust  as  goot  as  a  failure." 

And  so  in  the  ministry,  much  that  we  would  size 
up  as  gold  and  silver  may  be  entered  on  the  record- 
ing angel's  book  as  hay  and  stubble,  and  much  that 
we  call  failure  may  turn  out  to  be  what  God  calls  suc- 

I20 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL        121 

cess.  Without  undertaking  to  say  just  what  failure 
is,  therefore,  I  will  mention  a  few  things  that  would 
seem  to  at  least  dwarf  the  usefulness  of  the  minister. 
At  the  head  of  the  list  I  will  put  down  — 

I.  Lack  of  natural  ability.  Unless  a  man  is  born 
with  preach  in  him  I  don't  believe  he  can  ever  get  it 
there.  I  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  That 
God  settled  some  things  for  eternity  before  the  foun- 
dations of  the  world  were  laid,  and  one  of  them  is 
that  a  man  with  no  music  in  his  soul  can  never  be- 
come a  Paderewski,  and  another  is  that  the  preacher 
must  be  born  with  his  preach  in  him,  or  no  theolog- 
ical institution  can  ever  put  it  there. 

At  a  conference  where  Bishop  Simpson  was  preach- 
ing as  only  he  could  preach,  two  old  preachers  sitting 
side  by  side  were  so  affected  that  tears  filled  their 
eyes.     One  clutched  the  other  by  the  arm  and  said  : 

"  Brother,  why  is  it  that  great  lamp  of  the  Lord 
can  fill  this  whole  house  with  hght,  while  so  many  of 
us  are  nothing  more  than  little  sick  room  tapers  ?  " 
And  the  other  replied : 

"  The  Lord  put  a  good  wick  in  him,  brother — the 
Lord  put  a  good  wick  in  him." 

The  principal  reason  why  some  men  fail  is  that 
the  Lord  didn't  put  a  good  wick  in  them  for  the 
ministry.  Just  as  there  are  pieces  of  hickory  that 
Omnipotence  couldn't  make  a  good  ax-handle  out 
of,  without  first  remaking  the  timber,  so  there  are 
men  trying  to  be  preachers  to-day  who  would  have 
to  be  born  again,  and  born  of  altogether  different 
parents  too,  before  the  Lord  Himself  could  ever  make 


122       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

anything  more  than  common  sticks  out  of  them  in 
the  ministry.  Many  are  far  from  being  what  they 
want  to  be  in  the  ministry  to-day  because  they  were 
not  born  in  the  tribe  of  Levi. 

2.  Another  reason  for  failure  that  I  beheve  ought 
to  come  in  near  the  top  of  the  Hst,  is  uncertainty 
about  the  call  to  preach.  There  are  men  who  feel 
sure  they  have  had  a  divine  call  whenever  they  have 
a  good  time  in  preaching,  but  when  they  have  no 
liberty,  and  the  people  sit  and  yawn  in  their  faces, 
and  look  almost  bored  to  death,  they  begin  to  have 
serious  doubts  about  it,  and  I  have  known  two  or 
three  who  were  so  completely  in  the  shadow  of  the 
juniper  tree  that  they  were  about  convinced  that  the 
accuser  of  the  brethren  had  more  to  do  with  their 
being  in  the  ministry  than  the  Lord  Himself  had. 

Unless  there  is  absolute  certainty  about  the  divine 
call,  I  doubt  if  there  can  be  any  real  power  in  the 
ministry.  The  man  who  would  open  the  Bible  for 
people  to  live  and  die  by  ought  to  know  beyond  all 
chance  of  doubt  that  God  has  sent  him  to  do  it.  If 
he  doubts  this  the  probabilities  are  that  he  will  do 
more  harm  than  good  in  the  pulpit.  I  once  heard 
D.  L.  Moody  say  that  he  wouldn't  advise  any  man 
to  preach  if  he  could  possibly  do  anything  else. 

I  rather  admire  the  precaution  Gideon  took  to 
make  sure  that  he  had  not  misunderstood  the  Lord 
about  the  work  he  was  about  to  undertake.  So  he 
put  out  his  fleece,  not  once  only,  but  twice,  and 
never  struck  a  lick  until  his  last  doubt  was  gone. 
This  shows  very  clearly,  too,  how  ready  God  is  to 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       123 

give  the  fullest  light  to  the  one  who  really  wants  to 
know  His  will  before  taking  a  decisive  step.  Men 
could  perhaps  be  found  who  would  be  making  shoes 
or  running  a  gas  engine  if  all  preachers  had  used  as 
much  wool  for  the  same  purpose  as  Gideon  did. 

3.  Another  serious  drawback  is  lack  of  earnest- 
ness. If  there  is  any  place  where  half-heartedness 
should  never  be  found,  it  is  in  the  ministry.  The 
man  who  is  half  asleep  himself  cannot  arouse  others. 
A  bullet  straight  from  the  gun  disturbs  the  enemy 
more  than  a  cannon-ball  at  rest. 

In  Dante's  Inferno  he  saw  a  lot  of  souls  who 
couldn't  get  anywhere.  They  were  the  lukewarm  fel- 
lows who  were  not  good  enough  for  heaven  nor  bad 
enough  for  hell,  and  so  they  were  kept  out  in  the 
cold  and  had  to  shiver  around  between  the  two 
places,  and  such  history  is  always  repeating  itself. 

Nothing  will  shut  the  door  of  every  good  king- 
dom in  our  faces  like  lack  of  earnestness,  but  every- 
body makes  way  for  the  man  who  starts  for  the  front 
as  if  he  meant  to  get  there. 

Find  an  earnest  man  anywhere  in  the  ministry,  and 
you  find  one  who  is  making  people  sit  up  and  take 
notice,  whether  he  is  preaching  on  Hard  Scrabble 
Circuit  or  in  Metropolitan  Temple,  for  earnestness  is 
to  the  man  what  steam  is  to  the  boiler.  It  makes 
things  go,  and  keeps  them  going. 

You  can't  discourage  an  earnest  man  by  blocking 
his  way  with  difficulties  or  throwing  cold  water  on 
him.  The  lion  that  comes  out  and  roars  against  him 
is  simply  ringing  the  bell  for  its  own  funeral,  for  the 


124       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

next  thing  it  knows  it  will  find  itself  turned  into  a 
beehive.  And  by  the  way,  the  flavor  of  dead  lion 
in  the  honey  beats  that  of  clover  and  buckwheat  all 
to  pieces,  but  only  the  earnest  can  ever  taste  it. 

You  can't  dismay  an  earnest  man,  or  make  him 
give  up  his  job  by  making  his  work  hard,  for  with 
Nehemiah  he  will  say  : 

"  Should  such  a  man  as  I  show  the  white  feather? 
Not  on  your  life !  " 

Nothing  can  put  a  man  of  that  kind  on  the  side- 
track. •'  Put  stumbling-blocks  in  his  way  and  he 
will  use  them  for  stepping-stones.  Put  him  in  a  log 
cabin  in  the  wilderness,  and  he  will  make  his  way  to 
the  White  House.  Put  him  in  prison,  and  he  will 
send  out  books  to  delight  the  world.  Take  away 
his  eyesight,  and  he  will  produce  Paradise  Lost  or 
the  Conquest  of  Mexico."  Nothing  can  put  him 
down  and  keep  him  there. 

The  earnest  man  never  wears  out  the  cushion  on 
his  chair  waiting  for  a  golden  opportunity,  but  makes 
a  good  one  out  of  the  iron  and  brass  of  the  common 
things  around  him.  He  is  always  going  on  and  get- 
ting on,  for  he  believes  in  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  and  is  determined  to  have  a  farm  there, 
no  matter  how  big  the  giants  are. 

I  don't  suppose  the  Lord  has  any  more  use  for 
milk  and  water  people  in  the  ministry  than  He  had 
for  them  in  Laodicea.  The  promises  for  crowns  and 
new  names  and  white  stones  are  **  to  him  that  over- 
cometh,"  not  to  him  who  thinks  that  perhaps  he  will 
rise  up  and  gird  himself  after  a  while. 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       125 

Many  a  man  is  on  the  flat  of  his  back  to-day  be- 
cause he  was  not  more  in  earnest  yesterday.  There 
is  one  thing  I  Hke  about  a  bantam  rooster,  and  that 
is  his  earnestness.  He  puts  all  there  is  of  him  into  his 
crow.  Let  the  preacher  do  the  same  thing,  and  he 
will  never  hear  anybody  snore. 

4.  Another  drawback  with  some  preachers  is  that 
they  live  too  much  on  stilts.  The  stilts  of  minis- 
terial dignity,  preacher  mannerisms,  bloodless  plati- 
tudes, pious  austerity,  or  something  else  that  puts  the 
man  so  high  above  his  fellows  that  they  couldn't 
touch  him  with  a  ten  foot  pole. 

There  are  better  ways  of  helping  men  up  out  of 
the  mud  than  by  throwing  sermons  at  them  from  the 
tree  tops.  The  word  must  be  made  flesh  before  it  can 
ever  reach  those  who  are  in  the  flesh.  Preaching  John 
Smith  and  him  dignified  is  an  altogether  different  thing 
from  preaching  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 

Going  around  on  stilts,  throwing  bakery  circulars 
into  up-stairs  windows,  may  seem  to  be  an  energetic 
way  of  putting  in  the  time,  but  standing  on  the 
ground  floor  and  handing  out  real  bread  is  a  far  bet- 
ter way  to  reach  the  hungry. 

*'The  village  priest  of  austerity 

Climbed  up  in  the  high  church  steeple, 
To  be  near  God  that  he  might  hand 
His  word  down  to  the  people. 

**In  sermon  script  he  daily  wrote 

What  he  thought  was  sent  from  heaven, 
And  poured  it  out  on  the  people's  heads 
Two  times  one  day  in  seven. 


126       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

**In  his  age  God  said,  '  Come  down  and  die/ 

And  he  cried  out  from  the  steeple — 
*  Where  art  thou,  Lord  ?  '    And  the  Lord  repHed — 
*Down  here,  among  my  people.'  " 

5.  Another  very  common  cause  of  failure  is  cold 
heartedness.  The  preacher  means  well,  works  hard, 
and. wants  to  do  good,  but  in  spite  of  his  good  in- 
tentions he  carries  a  chill  with  him  wherever  he  goes. 
A  brother  of  this  kind  told  me  some  time  ago  that 
nearly  everybody  in  his  church  had  the  grip,  and  I 
didn't  wonder  at  it.     I  knew  where  they  got  it. 

A  certain  United  States  Senator  had  a  national 
reputation  for  being  cold  blooded,  and  a  Washington 
newspaper  one  day  said  : 

"  Senator  Blank  yesterday  left  his  seat  for  ten  min- 
utes, and  Senator  B.  sat  down  in  it  for  five  minutes 
and  took  a  heavy  cold." 

A  refrigerator  is  a  good  thing  in  the  right  place, 
but  the  right  place  is  not  a  pulpit. 

The  world  is  so  full  of  those  who  have  heartaches 
and  disappointments,  and  struggles,  and  burdens,  and 
troubles,  and  all  these  unfortunates  are  like  the  poor 
man  who  had  no  one  to  help  him  into  the  fountain. 
They  wait  and  wait,  and  hope  against  hope  for  some 
warm  heart  to  give  them  help,  but  how  often  despair 
comes  when  those  to  whom  they  stretch  out  their 
feeble  hands  pass  coldly  by  on  the  other  side. 

This  old  world  of  ours  is  in  a  greater  famine  for 
sympathy  than  it  ever  was  for  bread,  and  is  starving 
for  a  little  bit  of  love.  As  Pennefathcr,  the  English 
philanthropist,  was  walking  with  another  man  on  the 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       127 

street,  a  hungry  looking  man  stopped  in  front  of  him 
and  said,  "  O  man  with  heaven  in  your  face,  won't 
you  help  me?" 

I  believe  that  Jesus  must  have  had  just  such  a  face. 
A  face  into  which  no  helpless  one  could  ever  look 
without  feeling  that  he  was  about  to  have  help  at 
last,  for  no  one  in  real  need  ever  went  away  from 
Him  without  being  helped.  If  the  preacher  has 
heaven  in  his  heart  and  warm  blood  in  his  veins, 
God  will  make  his  ministry  like  a  watered  garden. 

"  I  do  not  see  the  wounded  soldier,"  said  Walt 
Whitman.     "  I  am  that  man  !  " 

That's  why  the  good  Samaritan  ministered  as  he 
did  to  the  wounded  Jew.  He  had  compassion  on 
him,  and  when  we  have  that,  there  will  be  no  failure 
in  our  ministry, 

6.  Another  bar  to  success  is  suppressed  individu- 
ality. The  preacher  has  no  greater  asset  than  his 
own  personality,  and  yet  it  too  often  happens  that 
he  does  the  least  with  it.  We  are  exhorted  to  pre- 
sent our  own  bodies,  which,  I  take  it,  means  our  very 
selves.  Not  what  we  think  we  ought  to  be,  but  what 
we  really  are.  Our  own  individual,  unfixed-up  self. 
This  is  what  God  wants  from  us,  and  He  will  take  no 
substitute. 

It  was  because  Abraham  was  Abraham,  and  Jacob 
was  Jacob,  and  Moses  was  Moses,  that  God  wanted 
them.  He  saw  just  the  timber  in  them  He  wanted 
to  shape  and  use.  It  was  because  Peter,  James  and 
John  were  Peter,  James  and  John  that  they  were 
chosen  for  disciples. 


128        WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

The  work  God  accomplished  through  Moses  could 
not  have  been  wrought  through  any  other  man,  any 
more  than  a  tow  string  can  be  made  to  do  the  work 
of  a  backbone.  The  fine-twined  linen  could  not  take 
the  place  of  the  tent  stake  in  the  tabernacle,  nor  could 
the  goats'  hair  be  made  to  serve  the  same  purpose  as 
the  gold.  The  hoe  and  the  axe  can  never  change 
places. 

What  a  blacksmith  wants  for  the  making  of  a 
horseshoe  is  iron,  not  a  chromo  imitation  of  it,  and 
what  God  wants  for  the  making  of  a  preacher  is  un- 
diluted personality.  If  God  sent  us  into  the  world 
to  be  iron  cog-wheels  the  sooner  we  find  it  out  and 
stop  trying  to  make  big  brass  whistles  of  ourselves 
the  better. 

I  suppose  the  Master  saw  any  number  of  men  with 
greater  gifts  than  Peter,  James  and  John  who  were 
willing  to  become  disciples,  but  they  had  so  patched 
themselves  up  with  imitations  and  appropriations  of 
other  men  that  He  couldn't  use  them.  What  He 
had  to  have  was  individuality  that  was  not  spotted 
with  color  splotches  from  other  folks. 

He  took  the  fishermen  because  they  were  fisher- 
men, and  not  college  professors.  A  theological  pro- 
fessor in  Simon  Peter's  place  might  have  set  the 
world  back  from  God's  plan  a  thousand  years. 

When  God  calls  us  He  wants  us.  Not  the  man 
we  think  we  ought  to  be,  or  the  man  we  hope  to  be, 
or  the  man  our  friends  think  us  to  be.  God  puts 
the  timber  of  individuality  in  us  before  birth,  just 
as   He  does  in  the  tree,  and  it  is  this  He  wants  to 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       129 

put  into  His  temple.  Not  the  veneer  of  something 
else. 

Environment,  culture  and  other  things  can  change 
the  size  and  quality,  but  not  the  kind.  The  grain 
was  foreordained,  and  it  can  only  be  changed  by  the 
same  power  that  did  the  foreordaining.  If  God  gets 
the  real  thing  from  us  He  can  change  it  to  suit  His 
purpose,  as  the  smith  does  the  form  of  the  iron. 

That  God  wants  individuality  is  very  clearly 
brought  out  in  the  minute  description  of  everything 
used  in  the  Tabernacle,  and  in  His  charge  to  Moses 
to  make  everything  according  to  the  pattern  shown 
in  the  mount.  Gideon  and  his  wonderful  band  were 
also  chosen  for  their  individuality.  The  Invincible 
Three  Hundred  were  not  like  everybody  else,  and 
that  is  why  it  only  took  a  few  of  them  to  use  up  the 
Midianites. 

In  some  very  common  things  they  differed  from 
other  folks  and  so  it  isn't  likely  that  they  would  blow 
their  trumpets  or  rattle  their  pitchers  or  carry  their 
lamps  exactly  as  others  did.  This  would  add  to  the 
value  of  their  service,  for  the  enemy  would  never  be 
able  to  tell  what  they  would  do  next.  It  would  be 
like  trying  to  dodge  a  cross-eyed  man  who  was  after 
you  with  a  shotgun. 

This  ought  to  be  a  solemn  warning  to  every  young 
preacher  to  stop  imitating  others,  and  be  willing  to 
be  himself,  even  if  he  does  think  that  in  his  own 
way  he  doesn't  amount  to  much.  If  the  Lord  made 
you  peculiar,  young  man,  He  probably  had  a  good 
reason  for  it,  and  so  don't  try  to  spoil  the  job  and 


130       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

lose  your  personality  by  imitating  Dr.  This  or  Pro- 
fessor That. 

Improve  yourself  all  you  can  by  culture  and  train- 
ing, but  be  sure  that  it  is  your  own  self  that  you  are 
improving.  Don't  repeat  a  mistake  I  once  made, 
when  in  the  early  dawn  I  went  to  the  barn  and 
curried  another  preacher's  horse,  thinking  I  wcis  at 
work  on  my  own.  Have  your  ideal,  but  don't  give 
up  the  real.  What  the  preacher  is  is  of  far  greater 
importance  than  what  he  does. 

Those  lamps,  pitchers  and  trumpets  must  have 
differed  very  greatly  from  each  other,  for  so  many 
just  ahke  could  not  have  been  found  in  all  Israel. 
Some  of  the  trumpets  no  doubt  had  a  very  sweet 
tone,  while  others  gave  forth  a  sound  as  rasping  as 
the  voice  of  a  prohibitionist  in  a  Personal  Liberty 
convention. 

Some  had  small  mouthpieces  and  others  large. 
Some  were  hard  to  blow  and  others  easy.  Some 
were  almost  new,  and  others  had  been  in  the  family 
for  generations,  and  may  have  had  their  part  in  the 
taking  of  Jericho.  Some  were  bright  and  others 
dingy ;  but  they  were  all  trumpets,  capable  of  mak- 
ing a  noise  of  some  kind,  and  noise  was  a  great  thing 
in  that  campaign,  and  is  yet  in  some  places. 

The  same  individual  distinction  was  also  a  marked 
feature  of  the  lamps  and  pitchers.  They  were  not 
alike,  and  yet  they  were  every  one  the  real  thing, 
like  the  repentance  of  Zaccheus.  The  pitchers  were 
of  all  kinds,  shapes  and  sizes.  Some  would  hold  a 
pint,  and   others   a   gallon   or   more,  but  the  little 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       131 

pitchers  were  as  surely  pitchers  as  the  big  ones,  and 
had  their  part  in  helping  to  scare  the  wits  out  of  the 
Midianites  when  the  proper  time  came. 

Not  a  soldier  in  that  heroic  little  band  could  have 
been  kept  out  of  the  ranks  because  his  pitcher  was 
too  small  or  not  the  right  color.  If  it  was  a  pitcher, 
and  not  the  conventional  goatskin  bag,  like  every- 
body else  had,  the  man  who  carried  it  could  pass  the 
guard-Hne,  no  matter  whether  it  held  a  pint  or  a  gallon. 

What  was  true  of  the  pitchers  and  trumpets  was 
also  true  of  the  lamps.  Not  one  of  them  was  half 
pitcher  or  two-thirds  trumpet.  They  were  lamps  all 
over  and  all  the  way  through.  Some  only  made  a 
feeble  light  perhaps,  but  it  was  light  nevertheless.  It 
wasn't  fox-fire. 

Other  lamps  probably  flickered,  and  their  Hght 
almost  went  out  at  the  critical  moment,  like  that  of 
Peter  just  before  the  cock  crew,  but  they  were  real 
lamps  just  the  same,  and  had  their  part  in  putting 
the  enemy  to  rout  when  every  man  blew  with  his 
trumpet  and  shouted : 

"  The  sword  of  the  Lord,  and  of  Gideon  ! " 

Some  may  have  contained  much  oil,  and  others 
only  a  httle,  but  that  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
case.  The  great  thing  and  the  essential  thing  was 
that  it  was  a  lamp,  and  not  a  picture  of  the  sunrise, 
and  was  where  it  was  wanted  in  the  battle. 

Individuality  is  something  that  cannot  be  analyzed 
or  defined,  any  more  than  the  thing  that  makes  a 
grain  of  corn  grow  can  be  analyzed  and  defined,  but 
it  is  that  very  thing  God  wants  from  each  of  us,  and 


132       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

earth  and  heaven  will  be  robbed  if  He  fails  to  get  it. 
There  is  as  much  difference  between  individuality 
and  the  imitation  of  it  as  there  is  between  the  living 
face  and  a  pasteboard  mask. 

The  power  of  the  preacher  comes  from  something 
in  his  personality  that  makes  him  different  from  other 
men.  He  is  not  just  hke  Smith  or  Jones  or  Brown, 
and  it  is  because  of  this  very  thing  that  God  has 
called  him  into  the  ministry.  We  want  the  violet 
because  it  is  a  violet,  and  not  a  sunflower.  Were  it 
to  undertake  to  make  a  sunflower  of  itself  it  would 
be  as  ridiculous  as  some  preachers  we  all  know. 

7.  The  preacher  who  would  succeed  must  have 
an  ambition  to  be  something  more  than  a  shoe-peg 
in  a  granary.  He  must  determine  to  be  a  growing 
man.  In  a  conversation  I  partly  overheard  in  a 
street-car  one  day,  one  man  said  that  another  could 
take  his  collar  off  over  his  head  without  having  to 
unbutton  it.  Whether  he  could  or  not,  something 
very  similar  sometimes  comes  to  pass  in  the  ministry. 

The  Bible  says  that  no  man  by  worry  can  add  a 
cubit  to  his  stature,  but  it  also  says  that  the  right 
kind  of  a  man  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the 
rivers  of  water,  which  is  only  another  way  of  saying 
that  he  shall  be  a  grower  in  a  great  way. 

Every  man  in  the  Bible  who  amounted  to  any- 
thing was  a  growing  man,  and  the  preacher  who 
climbs  any  kind  of  a  pinnacle  and  stays  there  must 
be  a  man  of  growth. 

The  preacher  who  is  not  always  in  school,  trying 
to  learn  something  from  everything  and  from  every* 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       13^ 

body,  will  soon  be  dried  up  and  stored  away  with  the 
other  mummies.  The  man  who  graduates  and  stops 
there  will  soon  be  able  to  take  his  collar  off  over  his 
head. 

8.  One  of  the  greatest  hindrances  to  success  in 
the  ministry  is  self-conceit.  This  blinds  a  man  to 
the  ability  of  others  and  gives  him  an  exaggerated 
opinion  of  his  own. 

The  conceited  man  is  a  sounding  brass  and  a 
tinkling  cymbal,  who  never  hears  better  music  than 
he  can  make  himself,  and  he  wants  everybody  else  to 
keep  time  to  the  music  he  makes.  Let  him  do  the 
talking  and  the  praying  and  it  is  a  good  meeting. 
Let  him  do  the  preaching  and  it  is  a  fine  sermon. 
Let  him  carry  the  flag  and  it  is  a  great  procession. 
Let  him  have  his  way  and  the  world  will  soon  be 
saved.  Let  it  be  any  other  way,  and  the  millennium 
will  never  come. 

The  conceited  man  is  a  man  on  stilts,  trying  to 
hide  his  wooden  legs  with  long  pantaloons.  He  is  a 
little  man  on  a  big  pedestal ;  a  grasshopper  on  the 
top  of  a  telegraph  pole.  He  is  like  a  cheap  restau- 
rant, with  everything  in  the  front  window,  and  no 
meat  on  the  table.  He  tries  to  swell  up  and  look  as 
big  as  a  house,  but  touch  him  with  the  finger  of 
wisdom  and  down  he  goes  like  a  bubble  that  has 
burst. 

I  was  on  a  steamer  when  one  of  the  passengers 
shot  a  sea  bird  that  looked  like  an  eagle,  but  when 
the  feathers  were  stripped  off  it  looked  like  a  hum- 
ming-bird that  had  been  caught  in  the  rain,  and  that's 


134       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

the  conceited  man  for  you.  All  fuss  and  feathers, 
and  not  much  else.  The  conceited  man  is  all  front 
door.  All  he  cares  for  is  outside  appearance,  and 
the  moment  you  open  the  door  you  find  yourself  out 
in  the  back  yard. 

It  is  the  meek  who  are  to  inherit  the  earth ;  not 
the  fellows  with  the  big  head.  There  is  more  hope 
for  a  fool  than  for  the  man  who  thinks  he  knows  it 
all,  but  we  must  not  be  too  hard  on  him,  for  we  all 
know  how  it  is  ourselves — by  spells. 

9.  Another  very  serious  drawback  is  lack  of 
proper  training.  Sometimes  the  preacher  has  been 
in  such  a  hurry  to  begin  fencing  in  his  corner  of  Zion 
that  he  didn't  take  time  to  grind  his  axe,  and  in  other 
cases  there  was  no  way  by  which  he  could  get  the 
use  of  a  grindstone.  Sometimes  his  preparation  has 
been  faulty  and  lop-sided.  He  filled  himself  with  a 
lot  of  stuff  that  would  be  of  no  more  service  to  him 
in  the  ministry  than  a  crane's  legs  would  be  to  a 
setting  hen.  He  knows  how  to  paint  a  fire,  but  he 
doesn't  know  how  to  boil  a  teakettle. 

He  knows  how  to  make  sermons  as  beautiful  as 
snow,  and  about  as  cold,  but  he  can't  tell  people  how 
to  endure  by  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible  when  things 
are  going  wrong.  He  knows  all  about  Ibsen  and 
Shakespeare  and  Browning  and  the  latest  kink  in  the 
new  theology,  but  he  doesn't  know  where  to  find  the 
chapter  in  the  Bible  that  says  a  church  pillar  will  lose 
his  soul  if  he  skins  his  brother  in  a  horse  trade,  or 
pulls  the  wool  over  his  eyes  in  a  stock  deal. 

He  knows  much  about  everything  under  the  sun 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       135 

except  how  to  please  God  in  the  business  he  is  in. 
He  can  tell  you  all  about  the  people  who  lived  three 
thousand  years  ago,  but  he  doesn't  know  anything 
about  how  the  people  live  in  the  next  block,  and  he 
couldn't  find  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  without 
a  concordance  to  save  his  life.  He  has  so  much  book 
knowledge  that  he  couldn't  crowd  his  head  through 
a  barrel  hoop  without  skinning  his  ears,  and  knows 
so  little  about  human  nature  that  on  that  line  he  could 
take  his  collar  off  over  his  head.  If  the  fireman  had 
as  little  practical  qualification  for  his  business  as  the 
preacher  sometimes  has  for  his,  the  town  would 
burn  up. 

I  believe  the  Indian  was  about  the  best  trained 
man  for  the  life  he  had  to  live  of  anybody  ever  known 
in  this  country,  and  I  have  thought  of  how  soon  the 
devil  would  be  in  the  hospital  if  every  preacher  were 
only  as  well  qualified  for  his  mission  as  every  Indian 
was  for  his.  The  Indian  knew  the  track  of  every- 
thing that  had  feet,  and  could  see  its  footprints  as 
plainly  on  the  dry  leaves  as  he  could  in  the  snow. 
Everything  in  forest  and  plain  had  a  voice  that  he 
well  understood.  He  had  been  taught  to  use  his  eyes 
so  well  that  he  could  see  a  thousand  things  every- 
where that  no  other  could  see. 

He  knew  all  about  his  enemy,  and  was  always 
guarding  against  surprise,  and  so  alert  was  he  that  he 
could  not  be  taken  at  a  disadvantage.  The  Indian 
could  scent  a  wolf  a  mile  away,  but  the  preacher  may 
sometimes  have  three  or  four  on  his  official  board 
and  never  suspect  it. 


136        WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

It  was  a  training  as  thorough  and  practical  as  that 
of  the  Indian  that  the  Master  gave  to  the  fishermen 
He  found  on  the  Sea  of  GaUlee,  and  it  is  mainly 
through  lack  of  a  similar  training  in  things  needful 
that  so  many  have  had  to  u^rite  failure  after  their 
names  in  the  ministry. 

10.  Another  great  reason  for  ministerial  failure  is 
lack  of  tact.  The  preacher  needs  gumption  as  much 
as  he  does  humility  and  piety,  for  the  Lord  needs  in- 
telligent service  quite  as  much  as  He  does  loyalty  that 
vi'ill  go  to  the  stake.  I  have  no  doubt  that  Paul  won  as 
many  by  his  tact  as  he  did  by  preaching  all  night.  He 
was  able  to  do  this  because  he  had  learned  some  things 
in  the  making  and  selling  of  tents  that  he  couldn't 
learn  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel.  Tact  wins  where  great 
gifts  without  it  would  fail.  It  will  help  the  preacher 
more  to  know  how  to  rub  the  fur  the  right  way  than 
to  know  how  many  animals  there  were  in  the  ark. 

A  preacher  told  me  that  he  made  seven  calls  one 
morning  before  breakfast,  and  prayed  in  every  home. 
I  didn't  vi^onder  that  he  had  to  do  so  much  hard 
preaching  to  empty  benches.  I  knew  another  who 
asked  a  woman  about  her  husband's  health  two  years 
after  his  death. 

Praising  the  Lord  with  the  loud  cymbal  is  all  right, 
but  it  is  well  to  know  how  to  use  the  soft  pedal.  If 
hard-headed  zeal  could  have  saved  the  world  it  would 
have  been  done  in  the  time  of  Samson.  The  preacher 
needs  to  be  as  wise  as  the  serpent  and  as  harmless  as 
the  dove,  but  he  cannot  be  as  harmless  as  the  dove 
unless  he  is  as  wise  as  the  serpent. 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL        137 

Had  the  old  serpent  in  Eden  been  as  ignorant  of 
human  nature  as  some  of  the  preachers  are  there 
would  have  been  no  fall.  The  man  who  would  take 
a  sledge-hammer  to  crack  a  peanut  has  no  business  in 
the  ministry,  but  he  too  often  gets  there. 

A  drummer  who  had  just  taken  a  large  order  for 
fountain  pens  was  told  to  cancel  it  at  once  because 
he  booked  it  with  a  pencil.  He  was  a  Solomon  to 
one  or  two  preachers  I  have  known. 

Rehoboam  lost  the  big  end  of  his  kingdom  because 
he  saw  too  little  and  said  too  much.  Somebody  has 
said  that  against  stupidity  even  the  gods  themselves 
are  powerless,  and  we  all  know  that  in  the  ministry  it 
is  true.  A  man  may  be  as  good  as  an  angel,  and  yet 
do  little  good  because  he  is  so  much  hke  a  bull  in  a 
china  shop. 

II.  Failure  sometimes  results  from  the  preacher 
trying  to  do  too  much.  I  once  saw  a  couple  of 
pictures  that  made  me  do  a  great  deal  of  thinking. 
In  one  a  preacher  had  his  church  on  his  back,  and 
was  carrying  the  whole  business.  In  the  other  all 
his  members  were  in  a  big  wagon,  and  he  was  pull- 
ing them  up  a  steep  hill. 

Things  hke  that  ought  never  to  happen  outside  of 
books.  I  once  spent  a  Sabbath  with  a  preacher  of 
this  kind.  He  was  the  leader  of  the  choir,  president 
of  the  young  people's  society,  class  leader,  chief 
usher,  and  about  everything  else  there  was  to  be.  I 
didn't  learn  whether  he  did  the  janitor's  work  or  not. 
I  did  learn,  however,  that  he  did  about  all  the  talk- 
ing and  praying  in  the  prayer-meeting,  and  that  his 


138        WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

church  was  suffering  from  locomotor  ataxia,  brought 
on  through  lack  of  proper  exercise. 

Had  Simon  Peter  followed  the  same  plan  with  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty  in  the  upper  room  I  doubt 
if  there  would  have  been  any  Pentecost.  A  church 
that  has  everything  done  for  it  will  soon  be  done 
for.  Had  Nehemiah  tried  to  mix  all  the  mortar, 
and  carry  all  the  stone,  and  do  all  the  mason  work, 
and  all  the  fighting,  neither  Sanballat  nor  Tobiah 
would  have  been  disturbed  very  much.  If  some 
preachers  didn't  try  to  do  so  much  themselves  the 
Lord  would  do  more  for  their  churches. 

12.  Some  preachers  fail  because  they  do  not 
preach  the  word.  Sooner  or  later  they  get  every- 
thing into  their  preaching  except  something  out 
of  the  Bible.  In  too  many  pastors'  studies  the 
Bible  is  about  the  least  used  book  in  it. 

A  couple  of  colored  men  were  one  day  discussing 
an  eminent  preacher,  when  one  of  them  said : 

"  Has  yo'  heerd  dat  man  ?  " 

*'  Yas,"  replied  the  other,  "  I  dun  heerd  him  three 
o*  fo'  times." 

"  Wall,  what  yo*  think  about  him  anyhow,  Mose  ?  " 

"  Wall,  I  tell  yo',  Sam.  Yo'  take  him  inside  de 
Bible  an'  he  ain't  no  mo'  'count  den  dese  oder 
preachers  around  huh  ;  but  ye  take  him  outside  de 
Bible,  an'  fo'  de  Lor'  he  kin  thrash  de  earth." 

And  that  summing  up  would  not  be  far  out  of 
the  way  with  too  many  preachers.  There  are  so 
many  other  things  they  try  to  keep  posted  on  that 
the  word  of  God  is  sadly  neglected,  and  so  they  must 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       139 

perforce  be  outside  of  the  Bible  preachers.  They  so 
seldom  get  into  the  Bible,  and  they  must  make  their 
sermons  out  of  something  they  know  something 
about,  they  think — though  they  don't  always  do  it. 

About  all  the  use  they  have  for  a  text  is  to  pin 
a  sermon  and  a  subject  together,  as  a  woman  would 
use  a  hat  pin. 

Some  years  ago  I  went  through  a  large  spice  mill, 
and  was  let  into  some  of  the  secrets  of  the  business 
by  the  manager,  who  was  an  old  friend.  He  showed 
me  a  number  of  things  that  he  said  had  nothing  in 
them  whatever  of  the  thing  they  purported  to  be, 
except  the  name,  and  I  couldn't  help  but  think  how 
much  that  was  like  some  so-called  preaching.  If  the 
pure  food  law  applied  to  sermons,  what  a  conglomer- 
ation there  would  be  on  some  of  the  homiletic  labels. 

13.  If  the  preacher  is  not  sure  that  the  Bible  is 
the  word  of  God  he  is  greatly  handicapped.  In- 
deed, as  much  as  a  doctor  would  be  if  uncertain 
about  the  purity  of  his  medicines.  The  man  who 
would  build  up  the  faith  of  others  must  first  wage 
a  war  of  extermination  against  his  own  doubts.  It 
must  be  a  war  to  the  death  against  Amalek.  If  we 
tear  a  single  leaf  out  of  the  Bible  we  will  soon  throw 
away  the  whole  book. 

There  was  once  a  preacher  who  stirred  up  doubt 
in  every  sermon  he  preached  by  saying,  "  This  does 
not  mean  just  what  it  seems  to  say,"  or  "  It  has  been 
rejected  by  the  most  advanced  scholarship,"  or  "  we 
have  a  passage  here  that  is  purely  figurative." 

Among  those  who  heard  him    was   a  man  who 


140       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

always  went  home  and  literally  tore  out  of  his 
Bible  what  the  preacher  had  rejected  in  his,  until 
at  last  he  walked  into  church  one  Sunday  morning, 
with  nothing  left  but  a  picture  of  the  devil  and  the 
ten  commandments. 

Handing  "  the  remains  "  to  his  relentless  pastor 
he  said,  •'  Here's  your  Bible."  "  Why,  what  do 
you  mean  ? "  said  the  preacher.  "  I  mean  that 
this  is  all  you  have  left  me  of  this  blessed  book." 

The  man  who  builds  his  house  on  the  sand  shows 
the  need  of  lunatic  asylums  with  every  brick  he 
lays,  and  the  preacher  who  tells  people  to  have 
faith  in  God,  and  in  the  same  breath  does  what 
he  can  to  destroy  the  faith  they  have,  is  as  sure  to 
fail  in  the  ministry  as  the  sower  of  the  wind  is  to 
reap  the  whirlwind 

14.  Failure  sometimes  results  from  lack  of 
courage.  David's  last  words  to  Solomon  were, 
"  Be  strong,  and  show  thyself  a  man."  The 
preacher  needs  backbone  as  much  as  he  does 
brain.  In  giving  her  verse  at  Sunday-school,  a 
little  girl  got  it  wrong.  The  verse  was,  **  And  the 
king  had  no  spirit  in  him,"  but  she  gave  it  this  way, 
"  And  the  king  had  no  spine  in  him." 

The  preacher  must  have  a  spine  in  him  to  do  his 
work  as  God  wants  it  done.  The  main  reason  why 
some  men  never  get  to  be  leaders  in  anything  is 
because  they  haven't  the  courage  to  stand  alone. 
They  are  afraid  to  take  a  step  in  advance  of  the 
line,  for  fear  they  will  be  shot  at.  They  are  afraid 
of  what  people  will  think,  or  the  papers  will  say. 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       141 

They  are  more  afraid  of  the  pointed  finger  than  a 
woman  is  of  a  shotgun. 

The  man  who  sets  out  to  lead  others  must  have 
the  courage  to  do  a  good  deal  of  travelHng  alone. 
He  must  be  wiUing  to  do  the  preaching  God  bids 
him  without  first  looking  into  the  pews  to  see  who 
is  going  to  be  hit. 

A  courageous  determination  to  go  straight  on  in 
the  course  we  know  to  be  right  is  the  Samson  in 
us  which  keeps  us  from  turning  back  when  we  hear 
the  lions  roar.  It  is  the  Columbus  that  keeps 
straight  on  until  land  is  sighted.  It  is  the  Wash- 
ington who  saves  the  country,  and  the  Lincoln  who 
preserves  it.  The  man  who  has  a  courage  that  never 
forsakes  him  is  bound  to  be  somebody  after  a  while, 
but  the  faint  heart  that  gives  up  at  the  sight  of  the 
enemy  will  never  get  to  the  front  in  any  battle. 

The  man  of  courage  is  as  certain  to  go  forward 
and  upward  as  bad  news  is  to  spread.  You  can't 
turn  him  back  by  telling  him  the  way  is  full  of 
lions.  What  does  he  care  for  lions  ?  Why,  lions 
are  his  golden  opportunities,  for  to  him  the  roar 
of  the  Hon  is  the  first  call  for  dinner  in  the  dining 
car.  All  the  Hon  can  do  against  the  man  of 
courage  is  to  roar,  and  the  greater  the  roar  the 
bigger  the  beehive,  and  the  sweeter  the  honey  that 
will  come  out  of  it. 

15.  Closely  allied  to  lack  of  courage  is  lack  of 
faith,  for  faith  gives  coump^e  as  nothing  else  can. 
If  we  have  a  faith  that  believes  in  God's  word  as  the 
merchant  believes  in  his  check-book,  difficulties  will 


142       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

fade  away  before  us  as  dew  before  sunshine.  If  we 
believe  that  the  Great  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host  is 
with  us,  and  leading  the  way,  we  can  march  with 
confidence  around  the  walls  of  every  Jericho,  and 
feel  as  well  assured  that  they  will  go  down  as  that 
the  sun  will  shine  to-morrow.  If  we  have  our  feet 
well  shod  with  the  immutable  word  of  our  God,  we 
will  not  slip  and  Hmp  and  stumble  in  half-hearted- 
ness  whenever  we  come  to  a  hill  of  difficulty. 

If  we  beheve  that  God  is  an  ever-present  help,  and 
that  all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth,  we 
will  not  show  the  white  feather  when  we  see  the 
horses  and  chariots  and  the  big  army.  The  sight  of 
a  giant  will  not  make  our  knees  knock  together  Hke 
those  of  King  Saul. 

If  we  believe  in  God  at  all,  we  ought  to  believe 
that  He  is  able  to  bring  us  off  more  than  conquerors, 
no  matter  who  or  what  is  against  us.  If  God  be  for 
us,  what  docs  it  matter  about  the  bars  of  iron  and  the 
gates  of  brass  ?  Moses  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom 
of  the  Egyptians,  and  was  mighty  in  words  and  deeds, 
but  it  was  through  faith  in  his  God  that  he  broke  the 
iron  hand  of  Pharaoh,  rolled  away  the  sea,  and  fed  a 
great  army  in  the  wilderness.  If  faith  in  God  could 
bring  bread  from  heaven  then,  and  water  out  of  the 
flinty  rock,  it  can  do  so  now,  for  the  promise,  "  Trust 
in  the  Lord  and  do  good ;  so  shalt  thou  dwell  in  the 
land,  and  verily  thou  shalt  be  fed,"  is  still  in  force, 
and  if  it  means  anything  at  all  it  means  house  rent 
and  board  anywhere  in  the  world  to  the  man  who 
will  meet  the  conditions. 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL       143 

Let  the  preacher  be  a  man  of  faith,  and  he  will  be 
able  to  move  every  mountain  that  blocks  his  way. 
The  Twenty-third  Psalm  and  God's  promises  to  the 
man  who  will  trust  in  Him  were  not  put  in  the 
Bible  to  fill  up,  and  yet  some  of  us  preach  as  if  we 
thought  so. 

1 6.  Some  failures  occur  in  the  ministry  through 
lack  in  spiritual  quahfications.  Sometimes  the 
preacher  does  not  have  an  experimental  knowledge 
of  the  power  of  the  Gospel  he  tries  to  preach,  and 
this  makes  him  a  Samson  with  his  hair  cut.  He 
does  not  know  any  more  about  the  real  meaning  of 
spiritual  life  than  the  town  pump  does  about  the 
taste  of  water,  and  he  cannot  know  it  because  he  has 
not  been  born  from  above.  He  is  a  blind  man  try- 
ing to  lead  the  bhnd.  His  only  knowledge  of  God 
is  an  intellectual  conception  of  some  of  His  attributes. 

He  does  not  know  God  in  his  own  heart  and  hfe. 
All  he  knows  of  Christ  has  been  gleaned  from  books. 
Of  course  such  a  preacher  can  no  more  minister  to 
the  soul  needs  of  his  people  than  he  can  communicate 
his  thoughts  in  an  unknown  tongue.  The  preacher 
must  have  a  positive  and  satisfying  knowledge  of 
godliness  before  he  can  cause  in  others  a  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness. 

17.  Another  spiritual  drawback  is  lack  of  prayer. 
The  man  of  God  should  be  a  man  who  walks  and 
talks  with  God.  When  Jesus  prayed  all  night  the 
multitude  sought  Him  in  the  morning.  If  some  of 
us  took  more  time  to  pray  it  wouldn't  take  us  so 
long  to  make  our  sermons,  and  there  would  be  more 


144       WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL 

power  in  them  after  they  were  made.  The  trolley 
car  can  run  down-hill  without  connection  with  the 
power  house,  but  it  cannot  go  an  inch  the  other  way, 
and  it  may  be  somewhat  that  way  with  the  preacher. 

I  doubt  if  a  revival  has  ever  been  known  that  did 
not  begin  in  an  atmosphere  of  prayer.  Nothing  can 
give  us  such  a  reaUzing  sense  of  the  presence  of  our 
divine  Master,  and  that  of  itself  ought  to  be  sufficient 
reason  to  make  us  prayerful.  Abraham  endured  as 
seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,  and  so  can  we,  if  we  will 
meet  the  conditions.  Perhaps  if  we  would  pray 
more  we  wouldn't  have  to  preach  so  much.  I  wish 
we  might  all  give  it  an  earnest  and  faithful  trial. 

1 8.  One  more  reason  for  failure,  that  I  will  men- 
tion, is  not  being  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  As 
well  undertake  to  run  an  engine  without  steam,  or 
a  trolley  car  without  electricity,  or  a  mill  without 
power,  as  hope  for  a  successful  ministry  without  the 
Holy  Ghost.  We  see  how  true  this  was  in  the  case 
of  ApoUos,  and  it  has  been  just  as  true  with  every 
other  preacher  not  filled  with  the  Spirit  from  his  day 
to  ours. 

Apollos  had  much  in  the  way  of  ministerial  qualifi- 
cation that  many  preachers  do  not  have,  and  yet 
those  who  heard  him  were  not  much  benefited  by 
his  ministry  until  after  he  received  the  Holy  Ghost. 
He  was  learned,  eloquent,  well  posted  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, instructed  in  the  way  of  the  Lord,  fervent  in 
spirit  and  full  of  zeal,  and  yet  his  ministry  was  a 
failure. 

I  think  we  can  all  agree  in  this  :  That  no  matter 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  FAIL        Uo 

what  a  man's  gifts  may  be ;  no  matter  how  well  he 
knows  his  Bible,  his  life  will  not  have  much  power 
in  it  for  God  unless  he  is  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit. 
We  have  all  heard  men  preach  who  could  almost 
touch  the  stars,  and  yet  there  was  no  more  heart 
power  in  what  they  said  than  in  the  playing  of  a 
music  box. 

Power  with  God  and  power  with  men  can  only 
come  through  the  Holy  Spirit.  Every  one  who  has 
ever  tried  to  win  a  soul  for  Christ  knows  that  it  can- 
not be  done  without  the  power  that  comes  from 
above.  As  well  try  to  make  a  photograph  without 
light.  If  we  would  have  success  in  our  ministry 
then,  we  must  have  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  last  promise  of  Jesus  before  Pentecost  was,  "  I 
will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  will  give  you  another 
Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever,"  and 
His  last  promise  before  His  ascension  was,  "  But  ye 
shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
come  upon  you."  His  last  thought  before  going  to 
the  cross,  and  His  last  thought  in  going  to  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father,  were  the  same.  The  promise  of 
the  Spirit,  and  we  may  be  sure  His  promise  at  these 
times  was  for  that  most  needed. 

*'  Come  Holy  Spirit,  heavenly  dove, 
With  all  they  quickening  power; 

Kindle  a  flame  of  sacred  love 
In  these  cold  hearts  of  ours. 

Come,  shed  abroad  a  Saviour's  love, 
And  that  shall  kindle  ours," 


VII 
WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

A  COLORED  man  said  he  could  talk  more 
religion  at  class-meeting  in  ten  minutes 
than  he  could  live  in  six  weeks,  and  I  am 
quite  sure  that  in  many  things  we  are  often  made  to 
feel  our  limitations  just  as  keenly,  though  few  of  us 
are  as  frank  in  admitting  it  as  was  the  colored 
brother.  It  is  much  easier  to  talk  about  things  we 
have  seen  done  than  it  is  to  show  how  they  were 
brought  to  pass. 

We  can  easily  say  that  a  thing  was  done,  but  to 
explain  how  it  was  done  is  a  horse  of  a  different 
color.  A  child  can  say  that  the  sun  shines,  but  it 
takes  more  than  human  wisdom  to  explain  how  it 
does  it.  That  a  house  is  a  house  may  be  realized  at 
a  glance,  and  is  conclusive  evidence  that  it  stands  on 
a  solid  foundation  of  some  kind,  but  it  will  take  more 
than  a  glimpse  from  an  automobile  or  a  street-car  to 
tell  us  how  deep  the  foundation  goes  down,  or  what 
kind  of  material  it  contains.  And  yet  we  know  the 
structure  is  standing  to-day  because  it  was  not  built 
on  the  sand  yesterday. 

The  same  is  true  of  all  success  in  the  ministry. 
Underlying  it  is  a  good  foundation  of  some  kind,  for 
success  is  no  more  accidental  than  a  house  is  acci- 
dental.    Both  are  built  from  plans  of  some  sort,  and 

146 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    147 

according  to  principles  of  some  kind.  Both  have 
been  the  result  of  careful  thought  and  intelligent 
purpose.  Back  of  all  success  there  has  been  an 
earnest  determination  to  succeed.  There  has  been 
careful  and  persistent  preparation,  tireless  effort; 
hope,  faith :  a  fervent  spirit  and  a  proper  ambition, 
without  which  there  can  be  no  success  in  anything. 

I  would  say  then,  first  of  all,  that  some  men  suc- 
ceed in  the  ministry  because  they  went  into  the  min- 
istry intending  to  succeed.  They  counted  upon  it 
from  the  beginning.  They  had  a  deliberate,  definite 
purpose  to  succeed,  as  certainly  as  David  expected 
to  bring  down  Goliath  with  his  sling. 

At  a  camp-meeting  the  man  who  did  the  preach- 
ing gave  an  invitation  for  those  seeking  blessing  to 
go  forward.  One  man  went  forward  and  knelt  down, 
when  a  worker  got  down  beside  him  and  said : 

*'  What  is  it  you  are  seeking,  brother?" 

The  man  looked  up  vacantly  and  said : 

*'  Oh,  nothin'  in  pertickler." 

But  the  man  in  the  ministry  who  doesn't  want 
anything  in  particular  never  gets  anywhere.  He 
wabbles  all  over  creation  like  a  boy  learning  to  ride 
a  bicycle.  Crooked  paths  are  not  made  by  those 
who  are  determined  to  go  straight  on  in  spite  of  diflfi- 
culties.  An  ordinary  man  with  a  great  purpose  is 
certain  to  accomplish  more  in  life  than  an  extraordi- 
nary man  who  has  no  purpose.  It  is  not  the  man 
with  the  best  gun  who  bags  the  most  birds,  but  the 
one  whose  aim  is  the  best. 

When  Alexander  the  Great  was  asked  how  he  had 


148    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    * 

conquered  the  world,  he  rephed, "  By  not  wavering." 
And  singleness  of  aim  rigidly  adhered  to  is  certain, 
sooner  or  later,  to  rule  the  world  it  sets  out  to  con- 
quer. Many  are  called  and  few  are  chosen,  for  the 
reason  that  so  many  stop  at  the  first  shade  tree,  be- 
cause the  road  ahead  looks  so  hot  and  dusty.  Pliable 
turned  back  at  the  Slough  of  Despond  because  he 
didn't  start  for  the  Celestial  City.  He  only  set  out 
to  go  with  Christian.  On  the  day  that  an  eminent 
man  entered  college  he  nailed  a  big  V  over  the  door 
of  his  room.  It  meant  that  he  was  after  the  Vale- 
dictory, and  he  got  it. 

"  Let  thine  eyes  look  straight  on,  and  let  thine 
eyelids  look  straight  before  thee.  Ponder  the  path 
of  thy  feet,  and  let  all  thy  ways  be  established.  Turn 
not  to  the  right  hand  nor  the  left ;  remove  thy  foot 
from  evil." 

This  is  God's  finger-board  to  success  in  everything, 
from  steering  a  flatboat  to  ruling  a  kingdom.  There 
is  more  hope  for  a  fool  than  for  the  man  who  isn't 
trying  to  get  anywhere,  and  this  will  hold  good  in 
the  ministry  or  out  of  it.  Nothing  but  a  right,  real 
and  definite  purpose  in  life  can  keep  any  man  keyed  up 
to  concert  pitch,  and  in  constant  shape  to  do  his  best. 

A  great  many  men  succeed  in  the  ministry  because 
they  are  good  pastors.  They  know  their  sheep,  and 
are  known  of  them,  and  try  to  take  good  care  of 
them.  Not  very  long  ago  I  heard  a  man  who  ranks 
high  as  a  pastor  give  this  brief  from  his  experience. 
He  said : 

"  When  beginning  a  new  pastorate  I   make  my 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    149 

first  round  of  visits  as  rapidly  as  possible,  so  that  I 
may  know  in  the  main  who  my  members  are  and 
where  they  live,  with  such  other  serviceable  informa- 
tion as  I  may  be  able  to  obtain.  In  this  first  visit, 
for  instance,  I  call  at  the  house  of  Mr.  John  Smith. 
His  wife  and  their  little  daughter  Mary  Alice  are  at 
home.  I  talk  almost  entirely  about  family  affairs — 
the  most  interesting  subject  in  the  world  to  every 
wife  and  mother. 

"  I  soon  learn  that  there  are  four  other  children, 
two  girls  and  two  boys.  Three  of  them  are  at 
school.  The  .oldest  boy  is  clerking  in  a  grocery 
store.  He  has  been  there  six  months,  and  likes  the 
business  very  well.  The  other  boy  is  a  great  stu- 
dent, the  fond  mother  says,  and  is  at  the  head  of  his 
class  in  school.  The  husband  is  a  lawyer,  and  his 
office  is  in  such  a  building.  From  the  mother  I 
soon  learn  the  full  names  of  all  the  children,  their 
ages  and  birthdays. 

"  I  pay  particular  attention  to  the  faces  and  voices 
of  the  mother  and  the  girl  at  home.  If  a  child  has  a 
double  name  I  learn  by  which  it  is  called  in  the 
family,  and  whenever  I  see  it  afterward  I  call  it  by 
that  name.  The  child  present  is  called  Alice,  not 
Mary  Alice  or  Mary,  but  Alice  only,  and  so  she  at 
once  becomes  Ahce  to  me.  I  must  never  make  the 
mistake  of  calling  her  anything  else,  or  forget  her 
name.  You  are  a  great  preacher  to  a  child  as  soon 
as  it  finds  out  that  you  know  it  by  name.  I  put 
down  in  my  note-book  all  the  information  gained 
there  and  go  on  to  another  house. 


150    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

"  That  evening,  while  all  is  still  fresh  in  my  mind, 
I  take  out  my  note-book  and  go  over  the  informa- 
tion, item  by  item,  clearly  fixing  it  in  my  mind. 
Then  I  take  a  few  minutes  for  each  family,  in  which 
I  recall  the  faces  and  voices  of  those  I  have  seen, 
until  they  are  indelibly  fixed  in  my  mind  so  clearly 
that  I  would  know  them  in  Damascus. 

"  The  next  Sunday  at  church  I  run  my  eye  over 
my  congregation,  and  note  how  many  of  those  I 
have  seen  are  present.  I  see  Mrs.  Smith  and  Alice, 
and  by  a  httle  effort  of  the  mind  deepen  the  impres- 
sion that  her  name  is  Mary  Alice,  but  that  she  is 
called  Alice.  The  rest  of  the  family  are  all  present, 
and  knowing  their  ages,  I  have  little  difficulty  in 
fixing  their  names.  When  any  are  absent  I  am  sure 
to  notice  it  and  ask  about  them  by  name. 

"  I  shake  hands  with  Mrs.  Smith  and  Alice,  calling 
each  by  name,  and  before  the  mother  has  had  time 
to  introduce  me  to  the  others,  I  have  taken  each  one 
by  the  hand  and  called  them  by  name,  which  of 
course  rather  startles  them.  I  have  something  to  say 
to  Mr.  Smith  about  the  law,  and  do  not  forget  to  say 
a  word  to  Tommy  about  the  store,  and  tell  him  I 
will  be  in  to  see  him  some  day  before  long.  This 
makes  him  think  that  he  is  somebody  in  the  preacher's 
estimation. 

"  When  I  afterward  call  at  the  store  to  see  one  of 
the  proprietors,  who  is  one  of  my  members,  I  do  not 
forget  that  Tommy  is  there,  and  take  time  to  see  him. 
I  never  forget  that  children  and  young  people  like 
to  receive  attention  as  much  as  older  ones.     When 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    151 

I  learn  that  certain  people  are  related  to  certain 
other  folks,  I  do  not  forget  that  it  is  a  good  thing  to 
know,  and  make  a  note  of  it. 

"  I  also  keep  a  birthday  book,  in  which  I  record 
the  birthday  of  every  child  in  my  congregation,  and 
I  never  let  a  birthday  pass  unnoticed.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  each  month  I  note  the  birthdays  it  contains. 
I  write  a  suitable  letter  to  each  child,  taking  a  great 
deal  of  pains  with  my  penmanship,  using  the  blackest 
ink,  and  doing  my  best  to  make  the  letter  look 
enough  like  copper-plate  to  frame. 

"  This  letter  I  mail  the  evening  before  the  birthday, 
addressed  to  the  child  in  its  own  name,  so  that  it  will 
be  received  by  the  morning  delivery.  Most  likely 
this  will  be  the  first  letter  the  little  one  has  ever 
received,  and  so  it  will  make  a  lasting  impression. 
It  can  never  forget  that  letter.  The  next  year  the 
boy  or  girl  will  be  out  looking  for  the  postman  when 
he  comes,  and  now  I  have  established  a  permanent 
interest  with  that  child.  It  may  forget  others,  but  it 
will  not  forget  me.  I  make  it  almost  a  part  of  my 
religion  never  to  forget  the  name  of  one  of  my 
children,  or  neglect  to  remember  it  on  its  birthday. 
I  try  also  to  learn  as  much  as  possible  of  its  disposi- 
tion and  characteristics. 

"  When  I  baptize  children  I  never  have  to  ask  their 
names  at  the  time.  With  a  child  old  enough  to 
notice  that  is  almost  an  unpardonable  sin.  I  know 
the  children  about  as  well  as  I  do  their  parents,  and 
they  know  me.  When  I  am  going  to  baptize  babies 
I  go  to  see  them  two  or  three  times  beforehand,  so 


152    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

that  I  will  not  frighten  them  by  being  strange  to 
them.  I  take  them  in  my  arms  and  have  a  little 
play  with  them.  I  can  hardly  remember  when  I 
have  had  one  cry  at  the  time  of  baptism. 

"  I  understand  my  call  to  be  as  much  to  the 
children  as  to  their  parents,  and  it  is  a  big  part  of  my 
business  in  the  ministry  to  win  them  to  Christ.  Re- 
sults with  adults  are  very  uncertain,  but  not  so  with 
children.  The  children  are  all  the  friends  of  Jesus, 
and  will  gladly  give  Him  their  hearts  if  we  do  not 
get  in  their  way.  A  blunder  with  a  child  is  the 
worst  blunder  that  can  be  made. 

"  When  I  talk  religion  to  a  boy  I  do  not  forget 
that  he  is  a  boy  and  not  a  doctor  of  divinity.  If  he 
is  ever  converted  I  know  that  he  will  have  to  get 
religion  as  a  boy,  and  not  as  an  old  man.  With  a 
touch  here  and  there,  as  I  have  opportunity,  I  do  my 
best  to  help  the  children  along  to  their  hour  of  deci- 
sion. Everything  I  do  has  this  in  view.  I  invite 
their  confidence,  and  try  to  draw  them  out  to  tell  me 
their  impressions  and  opinions  of  religious  things. 

**  I  don't  think  there  is  anything  in  the  world  I 
would  rather  do  than  talk  religion  with  a  child. 
Children  are  all  doing  a  great  deal  more  thinking 
than  we  give  them  credit  for,  and  parents  often  do 
their  little  ones  much  harm  by  showing  indifference 
or  making  light  of  what  to  the  children  are  matters 
of  the  greatest  concern.  Nothing  that  a  child  says 
should  ever  be  treated  with  ridicule. 

"  If  children  do  well  at  school  I  let  them  know  that 
I  know  it,  and  am  glad  of  it.     Children  love  expres- 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    153 

sions  of  approval  as  well  as  we  do,  but  too  many 
little  ones  never  hear  the  word  of  cheer  for  which 
they  long.  When  they  graduate  I  write  them  a  nice 
and  encouraging  letter,  by  which  I  hope  to  inspire 
them  to  strive  for  noble  things. 

'*  I  do  not  let  important  family  matters  pass  un- 
noticed, even  after  I  have  gone  to  another  pastorate. 
If  there  is  a  wedding  or  a  death,  or  a  misfortune,  or 
any  uncommon  occurrence  I  write  or  send  a  tele- 
gram, with  a  prayerful  hope  that  in  this  way  I  may 
carry  out  the  divine  injunction,  *  Rejoice  with  them 
that  do  rejoice,  and  weep  with  them  that  weep.'  " 

**  But  these  things  take  time,"  you  say.  Yes,  a 
great  deal  of  it,  but  it  is  time  well  spent,  and  will  do 
much  to  make  amends  for  whatever  lack  there  may 
be  in  the  preaching.  The  best  sermons  we  can 
preach  are  certain  to  be  picked  into  shreds  by  some- 
body, but  love  that  is  real  and  working  at  its  trade 
of  trying  to  make  the  world  better  has  nothing  to 
fear  from  criticism.  It  doesn't  take  a  ten  talent  man 
to  succeed  as  a  pastor  on  this  plan. 

In  doing  such  work  as  that  just  indicated,  and  in 
fact  all  kinds  of  pastoral  work,  I  beheve  the  card 
system  for  preserving  information  will  be  found  most 
serviceable.  It  is  now  largely  and  generally  used  in 
all  kinds  of  business,  as  being  about  the  best  system 
yet  devised.  It  is  elastic  and  flexible,  and  has  the 
advantage  of  always  being  right  at  hand,  something 
that  cannot  be  said  of  a  note-book  five  or  ten  years 
old. 

A  few  cards  for  use  'as  needed  can  be  carried  in 


154    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

the  pocket,  and  then  put  away  in  an  alphabetical 
case  when  filled  out,  to  be  found  afterward  at  a 
moment's  notice.  Notes  about  everything  in  a  pas- 
tor's work  can  be  kept  by  this  system,  and  all  the 
cards  filed  in  the  same  case.  Any  additional  infor- 
mation needed  on  this  matter  can  be  obtained  at 
almost  any  business  house. 

Some  men  succeed  in  the  ministry  because  of  their 
oratorical  ability.  Oratory  of  every  kind  has  a  great 
charm  for  all  manner  of  people.  We  all  like  to  hear 
the  man  who  can  make  the  thrills  run  over  us  and 
through  us,  no  matter  whether  he  is  talking  religion 
or  pohtics.  Both  the  educated  and  the  illiterate  are 
charmed  by  the  music  of  eloquent  speech,  and  they 
will  put  everything  else  out  of  the  way  to  go  and 
hear  the  man  who  can  stir  them  in  their  feelings  and 
sway  them  in  their  emotions.  The  orator  is  perhaps 
more  certain  to  have  the  success  of  large  congrega- 
tions than  almost  any  other  kind  of  preacher. 

This  was  remarkably  true  of  Whitefield.  For 
thirty  years  he  was  listened  to  with  breathless  inter- 
est in  both  hemispheres,  and  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands turned  out  to  hear  him  wherever  he  preached, 
no  matter  on  what  day  of  the  week,  or  at  what  hour 
he  spoke.  He  swayed  multitudes  with  power  like 
magic.  His  first  sermon  was  preached  before  he  was 
scarcely  out  of  his  boyhood,  and  it  was  reported  to 
his  bishop  that  it  had  driven  fifteen  people  mad. 
From  that  day  on  the  power  of  his  oratory  was  phe- 
nomenal. The  coldest  natures  would  warm  up  and 
fairly  melt  under  his  preaching.     Multitudes  num- 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED   155 

beriiig  thousands  would  hang  on  his  hps  for  hours, 
sometimes  through  pelting  rain  or  far  into  the  night, 
standing  around  him  as  if  entranced,  and  unable  to 
tear  themselves  away  and  sometimes  breaking  into 
cries  and  groans  that  almost  drowned  his  voice. 

Not  only  the  unlettered,  but  men  of  the  highest 
culture  yielded  to  the  fascination  of  his  speech.  The 
cold  and  skeptical  Hume  declared  that  he  would  go 
twenty  miles  on  foot  to  hear  him  preach.  Even  the 
cold  and  unimpassioned  Benjamin  Franklin  caught 
fire  from  his  burning  woods,  with  this  result : 

"  I  perceived,"  he  says,  ••  that  he  intended  to  finish 
with  a  collection,  and  I  silently  resolved  he  should 
get  nothing  from  me.  I  had  in  my  pocket  a  handful 
of  copper  money,  three  silver  dollars  and  some  gold. 
As  he  proceeded  I  began  to  soften  and  concluded  to 
give  him  the  copper.  Another  stroke  of  his  oratory 
made  me  ashamed  of  that,  and  I  determined  to  give 
the  silver,  but  when  he  finished  I  emptied  my  pocket 
wholly  into  the  collector's  dish,  gold  and  all." 

Another  man  who  went  to  hear  the  same  sermon 
feared  that  he  might  be  carried  away  and  have  to 
give  too  much,  and  so  he  left  his  money  all  at  home, 
but  before  the  sermon  was  ended  he  borrowed  of  a 
neighbor  and  gave  liberally.  This  would  seem  to 
bear  out  what  the  old  lady  said  when  the  baby  swal- 
lowed a  quarter  :  "  Run  for  the  Methodist  preacher, 
for  if  there's  anybody  that  kin  git  money  out  of  folks 
in  a  hurry  it's  him." 

If,  however,  none  but  great  orators  like  Whitefield 
ever  succeeded  in  the  ministry,  how  hopelessly  dis- 


156    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

couraging  it  would  be  for  the  rest  of  us.  Where  an 
unusual  gift  of  oratory  brings  one  minister  success 
thousands  of  others  manage  to  get  to  the  top  of  the 
ladder  without  it.  And  so  any  of  us  may  gird  up 
our  loins  with  holy  determination  to  accomplish  all 
that  we  have  the  God-given  power  to  achieve,  and 
start  up  the  steep  hillside,  each  bearing  in  his  own 
way  his  little  banner  "  Excelsior." 

Other  men  succeed  in  the  ministry  because  there 
is  a  charm  about  their  preaching  that  insures  their 
having  a  large  hearing,  and  I  am  not  talking  about 
star  preachers  just  now  either.  If  you  endeavor  to 
analyze  their  preaching  to  discover  the  secret  of  its 
power  you  are  all  at  sea.  They  appear  to  very 
closely  resemble  other  men  who  were  failures  in  the 
pulpit.  It  is  as  difficult  to  determine  wh}^  this  is  so 
as  it  is  to  tell  why  two  churches  built  on  the  same 
plan  are  sometimes  so  different  in  their  acoustic 
properties,  or  why  two  vioHns  that  seem  to  be  alike 
differ  so  in  tone. 

The  men  of  whom  I  am  speaking  have  no  great 
gifts  of  oratory,  and  have  no  more  personal  mag- 
netism than  the  average  man,  but  they  keep  every- 
body wide  awake,  and  you  do  not  hear  much  said 
about  their  sermons  being  too  long.  Among  the 
most  successful  preachers  everywhere,  you  will  find 
some  of  this  kind.  Men  for  whom  churches  are 
always  asking,  and  yet  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  say 
just  what  it  is  that  brings  this  success.  There  is  one 
thing,  however,  that  can  always  be  said  of  such 
preachers,  and  that  is  that  their  sermons  are  interest- 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    157 

ing.  No  matter  what  their  subject  may  be,  they  get 
something  out  of  it  that  chains  attention.  They  have 
something  to  say  that  takes  hold  of  you  and  makes 
you  sit  up  and  take  notice  in  spite  of  yourself. 

Those  parts  of  the  Bible  from  which  they  get  their 
sermons  and  illustrations  have  new  interest  for  you, 
and  you  wonder  why  you  never  saw  it  after  that 
fashion  before.  The  voice  of  the  preacher  may  not 
be  musical  or  very  melodious,  or  very  skillfully  han- 
dled, and  his  gestures  may  sometimes  be  quite  the 
opposite  of  what  they  should  be,  but  the  congrega- 
tion is  wide  awake,  and  nobody  is  in  a  hurry  for 
meeting  to  let  out.  If  anybody  goes  to  church  tired 
he  soon  forgets  it  or  becomes  rested,  and  if  anybody 
is  there  to  criticize  he  soon  forgets  what  he  went  for. 
Why  is  he  so  interesting?  Well,  it's  hard  to  say, 
but  there  is  one  thing  certain,  he  is  saying  something 
that  the  people  have  an  interest  in,  and  he  is  saying 
it  in  an  interesting  way. 

There  are  some  things  that  people  like  to  hear 
about,  and  others  that  they  do  not.  A  stuttering 
man  was  trying  to  make  love  to  a  girl — a  thing  with 
which  stuttering  is  apt  to  interfere  somewhat,  I  have 
been  told.  The  poor  man  had  evidently  been  satu- 
rating himself  with  the  song  of  Solomon,  for  he  was 
trying  to  express  himself  in  a  very  beautiful  and 
metaphorical  way,  but  he  had  scarcely  got  started 
when  the  trolley  flew  off,  and  his  train  of  expression 
began  to  slow  down  in  a  punctured  tire  sort  of  way, 
^  he  said : 

"  Your  t-t-teeth  are  I-l-like  p-p-earls,  and  y-your 


158    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

eyes    vv-would   shed — w-w-w-ould  shed "    when 

the  girl  broke  out  impatiently : 

♦'  Never  mind  the  wood-shed,  John ;  go  on  with 
the  pretty  talk." 

When  we  tell  people  about  things  in  which  they 
have  great  interest  minor  matters  must  get  out  of  the 
way.  I  don't  know  who  is  to  blame  if  he  is  not 
interesting,  unless  it  is  the  preacher  himself,  for  he 
certainly  has  the  most  interesting  book  in  the  world 
to  preach  from,  and  the  most  interesting  man  who 
ever  lived  to  preach  about,  and  the  most  interesting 
of  all  causes  to  preach  for,  and  if  he  cannot  keep  the 
people  from  going  to  sleep  on  his  hands  certainly 
there  is  something  wrong.  Somebody  once  asked 
Beecher  what  he  would  do  if  he  should  see  anybody 
going  to  sleep  in  his  congregation,  and  he  said: 

"  The  janitor  of  this  church  has  imperative  orders, 
if  he  sees  anybody  asleep  in  the  pews,  to  go  right  up 
into  the  pulpit  and  awaken  the  preacher." 

There  will  generally  be  a  wide-awake  congregation 
where  there  is  a  wide-awake  preacher.  It  looks  as 
if  almost  any  sort  of  a  preacher  ought  to  be  able 
to  get  enough  Bible  in  his  sermon  to  make  it  in- 
teresting, and  yet  it  is,  alas,  too  true  that  some  do 
not. 

As  a  general  thing  we  can  be  interesting  in  any- 
thing we  know  a  great  deal  about.  At  a  great 
Chautauqua  Assembly  a  man  held  a  large  congrega- 
tion spellbound  for  hours,  in  hearing  what  he  had  to 
say  about  a  rat.  Think  of  it !  A  thing  as  common 
and  detestable  as  a  rat !     And  yet  on  the  greatest 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    159 

of  all  themes — the  redemption  of  a  fallen  world — 
people  will  yawn  in  your  face  ! 

At  a  summer  resort  in  Indiana  a  naturalist  goes 
about  through  the  grounds  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  talking  about  birds,  and  hundreds  of  peo- 
ple leave  their  beds  and  follow  him  around  to  catch 
everything  he  says.  Is  he  a  great  orator  ?  No,  not 
at  all ;  but  he  knows  all  about  birds,  and  can  say  a 
thousand  things  about  them  that  the  people  want  to 
hear. 

If  he  went  about  talking  platitudes  in  a  humdrum 
way,  nobody  would  care  to  hear  him,  but  he  tells 
about  things  that  are  living  and  skipping  and  hop- 
ping and  singing  in  plain  sight,  and  he  does  it  in  a 
way  that  can  be  understood  and  remembered,  and 
that  is  why  he  gets  a  crowd. 

Let  the  preacher  know  his  Bible  as  that  man  knows 
birds,  and  he  will  not  have  to  nearly  kill  himself  in 
trying  to  get  a  few  people  to  go  and  hear  him  preach. 

Some  time  ago  I  heard  a  man  put  in  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  in  telling  some  of  tlie  wonders  about  the  eye 
of  a  fly,  and  a  great  crowded  audience  hardly  breathed 
while  he  was  doing  it,  and  yet  by  the  time  some  men 
have  been  preaching  fifteen  minutes  people  begin  to 
pull  out  their  watches  and  shut  them  with  a  snap. 
If  we  tell  an  interesting  thing  in  an  interesting  way 
we  will  be  listened  to  with  interest.  Darwin  wrote  a 
book  on  angleworms  that  takes  hold  of  the  attention 
and  holds  it  like  a  romance. 

Some  preachers  are  interesting  because  they  see 
things  so  clearly  themselves,  and  are  able  to  make 


160    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

others  see  them  just  as  plainly.  I  once  asked  a  man 
of  this  kind  why  it  was  he  could  express  himself  so 
clearly  that  the  people  caught  every  thought.  He 
said  he  believed  it  was  because  he  saw  so  clearly 
himself  the  thing  he  was  trying  to  present.  He 
said: 

'•  I  never  try  to  describe  anything  without  having 
it  clearly  in  my  own  mind.  If  I  talk  about  a  house  I 
see  a  house.  If  I  describe  a  room  I  am  in  it,  and 
see  everything  it  contains.  The  carpet,  the  furniture, 
the  grate,  the  fire,  the  pictures,  the  bric-a-brac,  the 
paper  on  the  wall,  the  windows  and  doors — every- 
thing— and  for  the  moment  it  is  all  real  to  me.  If  I 
am  talking  about  a  landscape  it  is  the  same.  The 
whole  view  is  before  me.  The  trees,  the  fields,  the 
hills,  the  stream,  the  cattle  grazing  in  the  meadow, 
the  children  going  to  school,  the  house  on  the  hill- 
side, and  the  church  spire  in  the  distance.  So  that 
all  I  have  to  do  is  to  tell  the  people  just  what  I  see, 
and  they  see  it  too." 

When  things  are  real  to  the  preacher  there  will  be 
a  reality  in  his  preaching.  I  have  been  told  that  the 
best  actors  are  those  who  most  fully  forget  them- 
selves for  the  time  being,  and  seem  for  the  moment 
to  be  the  characters  they  are  trying  to  impersonate. 

The  preacher  who  would  be  interesting  needs  im- 
agination to  give  life  to  what  he  says.  People  in  the 
main  have  but  little  imagination,  and  one  who  can 
take  thought  in  the  abstract  and  give  it  tangible  form 
becomes  a  creator  to  them.  To  be  able  to  paint  with 
words  so  that  the  listener  can  see  the  things  about 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    161 

which  he  is  hearing  is  a  great  gift,  and  should  be 
cultivated  by  every  preacher. 

I  once  heard  Bishop  Fowler  preach  on  Moses,  and 
in  the  course  of  his  sermon  he  almost  frescoed  the 
ceiling  of  the  church  with  scenes  from  the  life  of 
that  great  man. 

"  If  I  were  a  great  painter,"  said  he,  "  I  would 
Hke  to  put  over  in  this  corner  a  picture  of  the  mother 
in  her  little  cabin  of  a  home,  weaving  from  the  wil- 
lows she  had  gathered  with  a  heavy  heart  the  little  ark 
with  which  by  God's  help  she  was  to  save  her  child. 
And  just  beside  it  there,  I  would  draw  another 
picture  of  the  little  sister  keeping  watch,  from  a 
sheltered  nook  not  far  away,  with  the  little  home  and 
the  retreating  figure  of  the  weeping  mother  in  the 
background." 

And  so  he  went  on,  with  picture  after  picture, 
until  the  people  all  over  the  house  began  to  turn 
their  faces  toward  the  ceiling,  as  if  they  could  actu- 
ally see  the  pictures  being  painted  there.  People 
who  do  not  have  an  extensive  vocabulary  do  much 
of  their  thinking  in  pictures.  The  language  of  the 
Indian  is  a  language  of  imagery,  and  there  is  some- 
thing about  all  of  us  that  likes  to  have  thought  so 
presented  that  we  can  see  it  with  the  mind's  eye.  It 
is  because  of  this  that  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  " 
is  so  fascinating.  It  makes  Christian  experience 
visible. 

A  man  who  can  scarcely  draw  a  straight  line  can 
give  a  chalk  talk  that  will  hold  everybody  spellbound. 
We  have  all  seen  it  done.     A  well-known  figure  in 


162    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

Chicago  some  years  ago  was  a  boy  who  drew 
pictures  on  the  sidewalk  with  colored  crayons,  and 
he  always  had  a  great  crowd  around  him.  This 
should  be  suggestive  to  the  preacher,  for  it  shows 
how  people  are  attracted  by  pictures.  That  is  why 
the  "  movies  "  are  taking  the  country,  and  preaching 
will  become  more  popular  when  more  preachers 
learn  how  to  preach  in  pictures. 

I  doubt  if  any  one  thing  will  do  more  to  make 
sermons  interesting  than  a  wise  and  liberal  use  of 
illustrations.  Even  the  most  ordinary  preacher  can 
add  greatly  to  his  pulpit  power  in  this  way.  Just  as 
a  book  that  looks  very  dry,  and  would  hardly  be 
taken  up  the  second  time,  may  be  changed  into  a 
very  attractive  volume  by  a  few  bright  pictures,  so 
many  a  sermon  may  be  greatly  improved  by  a  few 
telling  illustrations.  In  addition  to  illuminating  the 
thought  good  illustrations  have  another  great  advan- 
tage,,  not  often  thought  of,  and  that  is  they  make 
good  baskets  to  carry  the  bread  home  in. 

Some  preaching  is  never  remembered  because 
there  is  nothing  to  take  hold  of  it  by.  It  is  like 
trying  to  carry  a  box  mattress  that  has  no  straps. 
Illustrations  help  to  bring  up  the  thought  so  that  the 
sermon  can  be  recalled.  The  sermons  we  all  re- 
member the  best  are  those  that  were  best  illustrated. 

In  our  day  you  can  go  to  the  store  and  buy  almost 
anything,  and  they  will  give  you  something  to  carry 
it  home  in.  Butter,  oysters,  eggs,  milk — anything, 
— and  it  ought  to  be  somewhat  that  way  with  the 
preaching.     It  was  that  way  with  the  sermons  of  the 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    163 

Master.  He  made  it  impossible  to  forget  them. 
You  can't  look  at  a  grape-vine  without  having  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  John  come  into  your  mind. 
When  Jesus  saw  a  farmer  come  into  His  congrega- 
tion He  knew  that  the  man  did  his  thinking  in  things 
that  were  familiar  to  his  farm  life,  and  so  He  fixed 
up  a  little  basket  for  him  to  carry  something  home 
to  his  family  in  by  saying  : 

"  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  a  sower  who  went 
forth  to  sow,"  and  the  farmer  was  all  ears  in  an  in- 
stant, and  he  no  doubt  said  to  himself:  "  Why,  how 
plain  that  is.  I  never  saw  it  that  way  before,"  and 
he  would  remember  what  he  heard  that  day  as  long 
as  he  lived,  and  could  explain  it  to  his  wife  and 
children. 

The  preacher  should  not  only  preach  for  the 
present  moment,  but  for  all  time  to  come  as  well,  by 
filling  his  sermons  with  associative  illustrations  that 
will  be  continually  bringing  them  up  in  the  mind 
again. 

I  doubt  if  anything  can  do  so  much  to  make 
preaching  interesting  as  to  have  it  come  largely  from 
the  Bible.  Bible  themes  and  Bible  characters  are 
certain  to  give  hfe  to  a  sermon,  and  make  it  take 
hold  of  the  attention  as  nothing  else  can  possibly  do. 
To  tell  a  Bible  story  even  passably  well  will  wake  up 
a  sleepy  congregation  at  once. 

Bible  stories  never  wear  out  and  never  grow  old, 
but  are  new  every  time  they  are  told.  No  matter 
how  often  they  are  heard  there  is  always  a  newness 
and  freshness  about  them.     They  are  like  the  beauty 


164    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

of  color  and  form  in  a  familiar  landscape,  which 
takes  on  a  new  beauty  with  new  light,  and  every 
time  we  look  upon  it  we  see  something  not  before 
noticed.  The  Bible  is  never  a  dull  book  when  read 
with  a  full  realization  that  it  is  the  word  of  God. 

I  once  knew  a  man  who  had  charge  of  a  mission 
on  a  crowded  street  in  a  busy  city.  Before  begin- 
ning the  service  in  the  evening  he  would  always  give 
a  talk  at  the  curbstone  in  front  of  the  mission.  A 
boiler  factory  would  not  have  been  a  much  more  dif- 
ficult place  in  which  to  get  and  hold  attention.  One 
day  I  said  to  him : 

"  How  can  you  ever  do  anything  in  the  midst  of 
all  that  noise  and  confusion  ?  " 

"  No  trouble  about  that,"  he  replied.  "  Nobody 
will  ever  leave  you  while  you  are  talking  about  Jesus 
Christ." 

With  that  for  a  pointer  I  went  back  the  next  even- 
ing to  study  his  open  air  meeting,  and  I  found  it  even 
as  he  had  said.  All  he  had  to  say  was  about  Christ. 
He  didn't  give  his  own  opinions  or  conclusions  about 
anything,  but  talked  altogether  about  the  Man  of 
Galilee.  He  either  gave  something  Jesus  had  said, 
or  told  in  a  very  graphic  way  about  something  He 
had  done. 

I  very  closely  watched  the  effect  of  all  this  on  the 
crowd.  I  would  select  certain  individuals  and  closely 
observe  them.  Everybody  I  noticed  was  giving 
close  and  respectful  attention.  A  newcomer  was 
certain  to  press  up  as  close  to  the  speaker  as  he 
could  get,  and  lean  forward  to  hear. 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    165 

Here,  for  instance,  would  come  a  workman  on  his 
way  home,  with  his  dinner  pail  on  his  arm.  He 
would  pause  in  an  uncertain  way,  as  if  he  only  in- 
tended to  stop  a  moment,  but  presently  he  would 
begin  to  hitch  up  closer,  and  if  the  speaker  were 
giving  a  parable  or  describing  a  miracle  the  man 
would  never  move  until  the  matter  was  finished. 

From  that  day  to  this  I  have  noticed  that  the 
preacher  who  packs  his  sermon  with  Bible  material 
is  always  interesting,  and  there  is  no  complaining 
that  his  sermons  are  too  long,  and  especially  is  this 
true  of  the  preacher  who  in  a  real  sense  fills  his 
sermons  with  Christ.  If  we  would  get  more  of  our 
preaching  from  the  Bible,  and  not  so  much  from  new 
books  and  magazines,  the  question  of  how  to  reach 
the  masses  wouldn't  make  so  many  men  bald. 

Some  men  succeed  in  the  ministry  because  their 
preaching  is  always  suitable.  They  have  the  knack 
of  always  hitting  the  nail  on  the  head.  There  is  a 
striking  appropriateness  in  every  sermon.  Such  men 
have  keen  discernment,  and  seem  to  know  almost 
intuitively  what  should  be  said.  Others  there  are 
who  are  just  as  unfortunate  in  an  opposite  way,  like 
one  I  heard  of  in  Ohio,  who  was  always  putting  his 
foot  in  it. 

At  one  time  a  prominent  man  died  whose  moral 
character  was  not  all  that  could  have  been  desired, 
but  being  wealthy,  and  having  a  secret  society 
funeral,  there  was  a  great  turnout.  The  preacher 
took  a  text  that  was  red-hot  to  begin  with,  and 
landed  the  departed  in  the  pit  without  any  ifs  and 


166    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

ands  about  it.  This  of  course  raised  a  great  com- 
motion in  the  community,  and  set  every  idle  tongue 
wagging. 

Soon  afterward  about  the  best  man  in  the  com- 
munity died,  and  being  a  member  of  the  undiscerning 
preacher's  church,  the  widow  was  in  consternation 
over  what  might  happen  at  the  funeral.  So  she  sent 
for  the  preacher,  and  begged  him  with  streaming 
eyes  to  be  very  careful  about  what  he  said,  and  not 
say  anything  that  would  make  a  town  talk,  as  the 
other  funeral  had  done.  He  assured  her  that  she 
need  have  no  anxiety,  for  he  would  weigh  his  words 
well. 

When  his  turn  came  at  the  funeral,  he  looked  very 
sober,  cleared  his  throat  and  said  : 

"  Dear  friends,  the  widow  and  myself  have  been 
having  a  long  serious  consultation  over  the  matter, 
and  we  have  both  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
less  said  about  this  man  the  better,  and  so  we  will 
sing  a  hymn  and  go  to  the  graveyard,"  and  that  was 
all  he  had  to  say. 

This  man  always  had  great  crowds  to  hear  him, 
because  no  prophet  could  ever  tell  what  he  would 
say,  and  every  sermon  was  a  sensation,  but  we  all 
know  that  no  such  ministry  could  be  successful.  But 
the  discerning  preacher  recognizes  the  fitness  of  things, 
and  there  is  an  aptness  about  his  preaching  that  all  at 
once  recognize.  Skill  in  personal  carriage  has  much 
to  do  with  a  man's  weal  or  woe  in  many  things. 

Some  men  get  to  the  top  in  the  ministry  largely 
on    account    of    their   tact.      They   are   not   great 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    167 

preachers  or  great  pastors,  or  in  fact  great  at  any- 
thing, but  in  essential  things  they  are  as  wise  as  the 
serpent  and  as  harmless  as  the  dove.  Others  there 
are  who  are  kept  out  in  the  cold  mainly  because  they 
have  never  learned  to  rub  the  fur  the  right  way.  I 
knew  one  man  who  was  a  great  preacher,  but  he  was 
an  utter  failure  in  the  ministry  because  he  offended 
people  right  and  left.  A  leading  member  of  his 
church  said  to  me  : 

"  Dr.  Blank  is  the  greatest  preacher  we  ever  had, 
and  if  we  only  had  a  trap-door  in  the  pulpit,  so  that 
we  could  drop  him  out  of  sight  the  moment  he  pro- 
nounces the  benediction,  we  would  want  to  keep  him 
all  his  life,  but  he  kicks  everything  over  before  he 
reaches  the  front  door." 

The  art  of  pleasing  is  the  art  of  going  up-stairs  in 
everything,  from  sweeping  a  street  to  preaching  the 
Gospel,  and  the  tactful  man  is  the  one  who  knows 
how  to  please,  for  he  is  careful  to  avoid  saying  or 
doing  the  things  that  displease.  An  agreeable  man- 
ner is  as  much  a  real  asset  in  the  business  of  life  as  a 
bank  account. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  we  sometimes  meet  men 
who  would  have  invented  good  manners  had  they 
not  already  been  in  existence,  and  I  believe  this  may 
be  found  true  in  the  ministry  more  frequently  than 
in  any  other  calling. 

When  Lincoln  was  making  his  first  race  for  the 
legislature,  he  went  to  solicit  the  votes  of  thirty  men 
who  were  harvesting  in  a  wheat  field.  He  didn't 
make  a  speech  or  any  promises  to  them,  but  taking 


168    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

up  a  grain  cradle  he  led  the  gang  around  the  field, 
and  every  last  man  of  them  voted  for  him.  That 
was  tact. 

Mark  Twain  tells  of  a  preacher  who  was  making 
a  great  appeal  for  the  missionary  cause. 

"  At  the  end  of  ten  minutes,"  said  the  humorist, 
*'  I  was  stirred  to  my  boot-heels,  and  wanted  him  to 
stop  so  that  I  could  give  twenty-five  dollars  before 
my  heart  broke.  But  he  kept  on,  and  in  teti  minutes 
more  I  began  to  find  my  feet  getting  cold,  and  I  only 
wanted  to  give  fifteen  dollars.  In  another  ten  min- 
utes I  only  wanted  to  give  five,  but  he  didn't  stop 
then,  and  when  the  collection  was  finally  taken  I 
stole  two  dollars  out  of  the  basket." 

The  preacher  often  defeats  his  own  ends  because 
he  hasn't  the  tact  to  stop  quite  soon  enough. 

I  knew  a  Methodist  preacher  who  has  for  years 
been  filling  some  of  the  best  appointments  in  his 
Conference,  much  to  my  surprise,  for  he  didn't  seem 
to  be  much  of  a  preacher.  Some  time  ago  I  in- 
quired of  a  man  in  a  church  he  had  served  for  six 
years  what  was  the  secret  of  his  success,  and  he  in- 
stantly replied : 

'♦  Common  sense,  sir ;  common  sense.  He  can't 
preach  much,  and  we've  had  much  better  pastors 
in  some  ways,  but  I  never  saw  a  preacher  who 
could  hold  a  candle  to  him  in  tact  and  gumption. 
He  never  stuck  a  splinter  into  anybody  while  he  was 
with  us,  and  he  pulled  out  a  lot  that  some  of  our 
other  preachers  had  planted." 

Some  preachers  reach  a  high  place  in  the  ministry 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    169 

because  of  their  close  and  constant  application  to 
their  duties.  They  feel  that  their  calling  is  a  high 
and  sacred  one — as  every  minister  should — and  they 
are  determined  to  put  into  it  the  highest  and  best 
of  which  they  are  capable.  Nothing  in  their  min- 
istry is  to  them  small  or  trivial.  To  pray  with  the 
sick  is  as  great  a  duty  as  to  preach  to  a  big  congre- 
gation. 

One  preacher  of  this  kind  whom  I  knew  made 
it  a  rule  never  to  be  absent  from  his  prayer-meeting, 
and  1  knew  of  his  once  shortening  a  visit  and  trav- 
elling nearly  a  hundred  miles  to  be  there.  With 
such  a  man  it  of  course  soon  becomes  known 
among  his  people  that  he  is  to  be  depended  upon. 
With  such  men  it  is,  '♦  This  one  thing  I  do."  They 
accomplish  much  because  they  concentrate  their 
efforts. 

Many  a  man  of  brilliant  gifts  brings  little  to  pass 
because  he  spreads  himself  too  rtiuch.  Like  a  man 
who  set  about  cooking  his  dinner  in  a  prairie 
country.  He  started  a  fire,  on  which  he  placed 
his  coffee-pot.  He  then  put  some  strips  of  bacon 
in  a  frying-pan  and  held  it  over  the  fire  alongside 
of  the  coffee-pot.  But  presently  the  grass  took  fire, 
and  he  began  following  it  up  with  his  frying-pan, 
thinking  it  was  hotter  there,  but  by  the  time  his 
bacon  was  fried  he  was  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  his 
coffee-pot.  And  in  that  you  have  the  reason  why 
some  men  are  where  they  are  in  the  ministry.  They 
get  too  far  away  from  their  coffee-pot. 

Some  preachers  reach  the  pinnacle  of  success  be- 


170    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

cause  they  are  so  full  of  enthusiasm,  and  are  able 
to  inspire  the  same  glowing  expectation  in  others. 
They  are  like  the  cob  stoves  in  Kansas.  As  soon 
as  they  begin  business  on  a  cold  morning  winter  is 
gone.  When  such  preachers  set  out  to  pay  off  a 
church  debt,  or  build  a  nevi^  parsonage,  or  organize 
a  brotherhood,  or  get  up  a  Young  People's  Conven- 
tion, they  take  with  them  such  an  air  of  confidence 
that  everybody  they  meet  is  touched  with  the  same 
spirit,  and  things  go  through  with  a  whirl. 

Things  can  never  be  dark  to  them,  for  they  can 
always  find  a  bright  side  somewhere,  and  they  can 
make  others  see  it  too.  Every  great  thing  in  the 
world  has  been  accomplished  by  somebody's  en- 
thusiasm, and  to  the  enthusiastic  man  God  always 
seems  to  put  the  giants  on  the  bill  of  fare,  as  He  did 
for  Caleb  and  Joshua. 

"  They  shall  be  bread  for  you." 

Difficulties  melt  before  them  like  dew  before  the 
sunshine.  It  was  largely  because  of  Paul's  un- 
daunted enthusiasm  that  he  was  able  to  plant 
churches  everywhere.  He  was  so  filled  with  radiant 
zeal  that  people  had  to  do  as  he  said.  We  have 
all  known  preachers  who  didn't  know  a  note  from 
a  horse-fly,  and  about  the  only  thing  in  their  sermons 
that  was  like  preaching  was  the  text,  but  how  they 
would  make  things  go.  Congregations  would  be 
large.  Galleries  that  hadn't  been  used  for  years 
would  have  to  be  dusted  out,  and  chairs  brought 
in.  The  membership  would  soon  double,  debts 
would   be   paid  off,  the  benevolences  easily  raised, 


WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED    171 

and  a  half  dozen  other  places  wanting  that  preacher. 
What  did  it  ?     Enthusiasm  hke  a  house  afire. 

"  How  many  fish  have  you  caught,  Tommy  ?  " 

"  When  I  get  this  one  that's  a-goin'  to  bite  now 
and  two  more  I'll  have  three."     That  was  enthusiasm. 

Very  closely  related  to  this  class  are  the  preachers 
who  succeed  through  sheer  earnestness.  They  may 
be  handicapped  in  every  conceivable  way,  but  noth- 
ing daunts  them,  and  nothing  ever  does  completely 
overwhelm  the  man  who  is  thoroughly  in  earnest. 

The  man  who  is  in  earnest  is  bound  to  be  some- 
body after  a  while,  no  matter  how  poor  a  chance 
he  has.     If  he  has  no  chance  he  will  make  one. 

Somebody  has  said  that  an  earnest  man  in  a  town 
is  like  the  itch,  for  he  makes  everybody  around  him 
scratch.  The  man  who  said  this  may  not  have  been 
a  poet,  but  he  knew  beans  when  he  saw  them,  for 
the  expression  is  as  true  as  it  is  homely. 

There  is  no  more  positive  way  of  being  a  failure 
than  by  being  neither  one  thing  nor  the  other — 
neither  cold  nor  hot.  What  is  the  good  of  having 
a  head  of  gold  if  the  feet  are  to  be  neither  clay  nor 
iron  ?  If  the  lion  couldn't  do  anything  but  roar  he 
might  as  well  be  a  ground  squirrel. 

It  was  said  of  David  while  he  was  still  a  shepherd 
boy  that  he  was  a  mighty  valiant  man  and  a  man 
of  war.  He  was  in  earnest  and  carpeting  his  room 
with  lion  and  bear  skins.  He  was  taking  a  stand 
and  maintaining  it.  He  was  overcoming  something. 
The  man  who  has  plenty  of  iron  in  his  blood  cannot 
be  kept  away  from  the  front. 


172    WHY  SOME  MINISTERS  SUCCEED 

Some  preachers  give  up  and  plod  along  in  clod- 
hopper fashion  all  their  days,  because  they  are  dis- 
heartened by  thinking  they  are  hidden  in  obscurity, 
where  they  have  no  chance.  But  don't  let  that 
trouble  you  for  a  moment,  brother,  for  obscurity  is 
one  of  the  best  friends  greatness  ever  had.  It  wasn't 
in  the  way  of  Lincoln  or  Garfield.  It  couldn't  keep 
Franklin  or  Edison  down.  Count  over  the  great 
names  of  history,  in  the  ministry  and  out  of  it,  and 
see  how  many  have  come  up  through  great  tribula- 
tion out  of  obscurity. 

There  is  no  better  place  in  which  to  build  a  char- 
acter that  will  shine  than  in  obscurity,  for  as  Emer- 
son has  well  said :  «'  Let  a  man  write  a  better  book, 
or  preach  a  better  sermon,  or  make  a  better  mouse- 
trap than  his  neighbor,  and  though  he  build  his 
house  in  the  wilderness  the  world  will  make  a  beaten 
path  to  his  door." 

The  battle  is  not  won  because  the  army  looks  well 
on  dress  parade,  but  because  of  what  has  been  well 
done  in  camp,  and  drill,  and  march.  Victory  comes, 
not  because  the  general  has  a  fine  plume  and  a  shin- 
ing sword,  but  because  of  the  rigid  discipline  and 
thorough  training  of  the  private  soldier. 

So  don't  worry  about  your  obscurity,  brother 
preacher,  for  if  there  is  gold  in  you  it  will  sooner  or 
later  have  a  chance  to  shine.  The  quickest  and 
surest  way  to  get  a  big  place  is  to  more  than  fill  a 
little  one. 

••  Seest  thou  a  man  who  is  diligent  in  his  business, 
he  shall  stand  before  kings." 


VIII 
AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER* 

AMONG  the  faithful  men  of  God  in  the  Old 
Testament  whose  lives  the  preacher  of  to- 
day may  study  with  inspiration  and  profit, 
I  doubt  if  any  will  yield  a  richer  return  for  the  time 
spent  than  that  of  the  rugged  and  fearless  man  who 
is  introduced  with  the  simple  announcement  that  he 
is  Elijah  the  Tishbite.  The  man  who  instinctively 
pieces  himself  out  with  high  heels  and  a  plug  hat 
grows  hot  under  the  collar  if  he  is  introduced  with 
his  front  portico  and  back  stairs  left  off,  but  the  real 
big  man  never  cares  whether  anything  is  said  about 
his  size  or  not. 

Elijah  comes  before  us  without  any  varnish  or 
veneer,  but  we  do  not  have  to  be  told  to  take  off  our 
hats.  When  some  folks  introduce  a  lion  to  a  lamb 
they  think  it  necessary  to  call  attention  to  mane  and 
tail,  but  the  Bible  does  nothing  of  that  kind.  In- 
deed, God's  way  of  introducing  a  great  man  is  always 
godlike. 

The  man  is  put  down  on  the  stage  of  action  and 
allowed  to  speak  for  himself.  There  is  no  blare  of 
trumpets  as  he  comes  in..  He  walks  out  from  the 
unknown  as  quietly  as  creation  came  out  of  chaos, 
and  is  left  to  declare  himself  and  make  way  for  him- 
self. 

*  From  "The  Raven  and  the  Chariot,"  by  Elijah  P. 
',^.ROWN,  copyrighted  by  Jennings  &  Graham.  Reprinted  by 
piermission. 

173 


174    AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PKEACHER 

The  brevity  of  the  Bible  is  subHme.  Not  many 
words  are  used  in  introducing  a  man,  but  chapters 
are  devoted  to  teUing  what  he  does,  when  he  does 
well.  The  Lord  shows  plainly  what  is  important  by 
where  He  puts  the  italics.  The  great  prophet  who 
is  the  theme  of  our  thought  is  introduced  in  a  breath, 
but  chapters  are  devoted  to  telling  us  what  he  did. 

At  our  first  introduction  to  this  rugged  and  sturdy 
man  of  God,  he  seems  to  have  been  having  a  hard 
time  on  a  city  appointment  that  was  more  than  he 
could  handle.  Religion  was  at  low  tide  when  he 
preached  his  first  sermon  in  Samaria,  and  it  didn't 
rise  any  during  his  stay  there.  The  oldest  inhab- 
itant couldn't  remember  when  there  had  been  a  re- 
vival, and  the  wonder  is  that  Elijah  didn't  begin 
hunting  for  juniper  berries  much  sooner  than  he  did. 
He  was  located  in  a  very  genteel  part  of  the  city  and 
had  some  remarkably  influential  people  on  his  visit- 
ing list,  but  he  seems  to  have  been  unable  to  blend 
the  elements,  or  to  reach  the  masses,  and  so  a  change 
in  his  field  of  labor  was  deemed  advisable. 

In  the  next  scene,  therefore,  we  see  him  receiving 
an  appointment  from  the  Jordan  Conference  to  the 
Cherith  Circuit,  to  which  he  went  with  a  spirit  of 
such  uncomplaining  obedience  that  we  instinctively 
hold  up  our  hands  in  wondering  admiration,  for  the 
prospect  before  him  was  about  the  least  inviting 
upon  which  a  man  of  God  ever  entered,  and  yet  he 
moved  without  a  murmur,  and  performed  his  part  so 
well  in  his  new  charge  that  he  was  permitted  to  stay 
the  full  three  years'  term  on  that  work. 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER    1T5 

There  wasn't  even  a  suggestion  of  salary  in  sight, 
and  yet  he  stepped  off  as  spry  as  if  he  were  going  to 
a  banner  appointment.  To  dehver  him  from  uneasi- 
ness about  his  support,  however,  he  was  told  that  the 
ravens  had  been  commanded  to  feed  him  there,  a 
duty  which  they  performed  with  a  faithfulness  and 
regularity  that  ought  to  make  some  of  our  church 
boards  ashamed  of  themselves.  No  man  with  a 
pocketful  of  money  ever  went  to  market  with  any 
less  concern  than  the  prophet  set  out  for  the  Brook 
Cherith  when  this  fact  was  made  known  to  him. 

There  are  preachers  who  would  have  given  the 
ravens  a  holiday  to  begin  with,  while  they  sat  down 
to  study  about  the  matter,  but  Elijah  went  to  pack- 
ing up  without  a  moment's  delay  as  soon  as  he  got 
the  word  to  move  forward. 

Before  some  of  us  would  have  been  willing  to 
begin  uncording  bedsteads  and  taking  down  stove- 
pipe, we  would  have  wanted  to  know  something 
about  Cherith,  and  whether  the  ravens  of  that 
country  were  reliable  or  not.  We  would  have 
wanted  to  know  whether  they  were  many  or  few, 
and  whether  they  were  much  given  to  quarrelling 
among  themselves  or  no. 

We  would  have  asked  all  manner  of  questions 
about  the  particular  ravens  that  were  to  keep  us  in 
breadstuff — how  many  of  them  were  eminently  re- 
spectable, and  how  many  were  just  common  birds. 

These  and  a  great  many  other  things  we  would 
have  insisted  upon  knowing  before  we  raised  a  hand 
to  begin  packing  our  knapsacks.     But  all  that  Elijah 


176    AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

cared  to  know  was  that  the  Lord  was  to  go  with 
him,  and  he  was  ready  to  start  as  soon  as  he  could 
gird  up  his  loins  and  put  on  his  sandals. 

In  the  prophet's  instructions  for  Cherith  he  was 
charged  to  turn  eastward  and  hide  himself,  a  charge 
that  every  preacher  should  strive  to  follow  to  the  very 
letter.  If  we  will  but  keep  our  faces  fixed  steadily 
upon  the  source  of  light,  and  hide  ourselves  behind 
the  cross  success  is  bound  to  come  sooner  or  later. 

Elijah  was  also  told  to  drink  of  the  brook,  which 
was  to  afford  him  an  ample  supply  while  he  remained 
there.  Every  preacher  should  drink  of  the  brook  by 
the  side  of  which  God  places  him.  Its  life  should 
become  his.  To  help  people  we  must  mingle  with 
them,  be  of  them,  and  know  them.  The  man  who 
takes  no  interest  in  the  hopes,  the  plans  and  the  life 
aims  of  those  to  whom  he  preaches  will  soon  find 
out  that  nobody  is  being  helped  toward  heaven  by 
what  he  says  in  the  pulpit. 

The  same  trust  and  unquestioning  obedience  was 
also  manifest  on  the  part  of  Elijah  when  he  got  his 
marching  orders  for  Zarephath,  where  he  had  been 
told  a  poor  widow  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  ravens 
in  preparing  his  meals  for  him. 

There  are  a  good  many  preachers  living  to-day 
who  would  have  been  scared  clear  out  of  the  min- 
istry by  just  one  look  into  that  poor  woman's  flour 
barrel,  but  the  late  pastor  of  Cherith  had  no  concern 
about  the  matter,  because  he  had  found  out  by  past 
experience  some  of  the  wonderful  things  his  God 
could  do  whenever  there  was  need  for  doing  them. 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER    177 

He  had  never  had  his  meals  served  more  promptly 
in  his  life  than  during  the  time  he  put  in  on  the 
Cherith  Circuit.  His  mother  may  have  forgotten 
him,  and  been  late  with  his  breakfast  now  and  then, 
but  his  God  never  failed  him,  and  the  same  God  is 
still  willing  to  take  upon  Himself  the  support  of  the 
preacher  who  will  preach  the  preaching  that  He  bids 
him. 

Brethren,  if  it  was  safe  for  Elijah  to  leave  the  bread 
question  with  the  Lord,  why  isn't  it  safe  for  us  to  do 
it?  God  made  the  ravens  prepare  a  table  for  him 
with  as  much  precision  as  the  sun  rose  and  set.  It 
didn't  make  any  difference  where  those  birds  were 
or  what  they  were  doing,  they  had  to  drop  every- 
thing else  and  take  the  prophet  bread  and  flesh  every 
night  and  morning — Fridays  and  Lent  included — 
and  no  preacher  who  looks  after  his  own  appoint- 
ments has  ever  found  a  place  where  he  had  his 
marketing  done  any  more  acceptably  than  those 
ravens  did  it  for  Elijah. 

The  first  noticeable  thing  in  the  ministry  of  the 
great  prophet  is  that  he  always  lived  on  his  work, 
and  put  in  all  his  time  right  where  the  Lord  had 
placed  him.  We  do  not  hear  of  his  taking  any 
summer  vacations — aside  from  his  excursion  to  the 
juniper  tree — or  of  his  spending  a  large  part  of  his 
time  in  lecturing,  or  in  looking  after  his  farm  some- 
where. Though  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  did 
at  one  time  preempt  a  small  piece  of  depressed 
real  estate  in  the  vicinity  of  Horeb,  to  which  he 
became  strongly  attached,  but  even  this  he  was  will- 


178    AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

ing  to  give  up  without  a  murmur  when  his  unminis- 
terial  conduct  was  pointed  out  at  the  next  Conference. 

The  Tishbite  seems  to  have  been  a  man  who  never 
neglected  his  pastoral  duties  in  trying  to  accumulate 
property,  and  he  didn't  feel  that  the  first  duty  of  a 
preacher's  life  is  to  get  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
hill  from  the  poorhouse,  by  paying  special  attention 
to  the  consideration  of  No.  i  every  chance  he  gets. 
In  visible  assets  he  was  so  poor  that  he  had  nothing 
but  a  shabby  blanket  to  leave  his  servant,  and  yet 
the  arms  of  God  were  ever  about  him,  and  no  good 
thing  was  ever  denied  him. 

The  peaceful  spirit  of  the  prophet's  trust  came  out 
strong  when  the  brook  dried  up  and  he  was  told  to 
go  to  Zarephath.  Some  of  us  would  have  fallen 
back  in  the  harness  and  got  balky  right  there,  and 
the  Poor  Widow  Mission  would  have  had  to  be 
undertaken  by  some  man  who  had  fat  on  his  ribs  to 
begin  with,  while  we  were  travelling  with  long  steps 
toward  where  the  voice  of  the  turtle  could  still  be 
heard  in  the  land.  We  would  have  put  on  a  long 
face  and  said : 

"  I  ought  to  have  something  better  than  that  this 
time.  For  lo  these  many  days  I've  been  as  good  as 
buried  among  the  crows  down  there  at  Cherith ; 
without  the  sight  of  a  single  friendly  face ;  a  con- 
gregation full  of  croakers ;  dependent  entirely  upon 
donations  for  my  support,  and  sustained  by  a  mon- 
otony of  fare  that  took  away  all  appetite.  I  ought 
to  have  a  better  place  this  time,  and  justice  to  my 
health  demands  it.     To  have  that  poor  widow  and 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER    179 

her  sickly  boy  confronting  me  every  time  I  sat  down 
to  dinner,  and  know  that  every  crumb  I  put  in  my 
mouth  had  been  baked  from  the  scrapings  of  her 
flour  barrel  would  take  all  the  inspiration  out  of  me, 
and  make  my  feet  like  lead  in  the  pulpit.  If  I  don't 
get  a  better  place  than  that  this  time  I'm  afraid  I 
shall  have  to  go  to  peddling  books  or  try  the  Hfe 
insurance  business." 

But  no  such  thoughts  ever  found  a  place  in  the 
mind  of  Elijah.  The  question  with  him  wasn't 
where  he  would  like  to  go,  but,  "  Lord,  where  do  you 
want  me  ?  "  and  with  a  manner  as  joyous  as  a  psalm 
he  picked  up  his  saddle-bags  and  set  out  for  Zare- 
phath  by  the  shortest  route,  and  when  he  came  to 
the  gate  of  the  city,  behold  there  was  the  poor  widow 
gathering  sticks  to  cook  his  supper.  God  always  has 
somebody  preparing  food  for  the  man  who  is  faithful. 

Did  it  ever  strike  you,  brethren,  that  whenever  the 
Lord  has  wanted  an  instrument  for  important  use  He 
has  always  taken  somebody  who  was  already  busy? 
But  when  the  devil  wants  a  helper  he  takes  the  first 
loafer  he  can  get  his  hands  on,  but  God  has  never 
had  any  use  for  a  lazy  man. 

A  handful  of  meal  in  a  barrel  and  a  little  oil  in  a 
cruse  wasn't  much  from  a  human  standpoint,  but  it 
was  all  the  Lord  needed  to  sustain  His  prophet  and 
the  family  of  the  faithful  widow  until  harvest  came 
again.  It  would  make  us  all  braver  in  our  preaching 
to  remember  that  a  little  with  God  has  always  been 
enough. 

The  Lord  could  just  as  easily  have  sent  Elijah  to 


180    AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

be  entertained  by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Zidon,  but 
He  glorified  Himself  the  more,  and  at  the  same 
time  sustained  the  faithful  widow  and  her  son,  by 
sending  the  prophet  to  be  entertained  by  her  instead. 
It  may  also  be  that  this  was  to  teach  people  who 
never  want  to  keep  a  preacher  over  night  something 
to  their  advantage,  for  there  are  a  good  many  plain 
hints  in  the  Bible  that  nobody  can  lose  anything  by 
having  a  godly  man  for  a  boarder. 

But  let  us  notice  the  new  preacher's  greeting  to 
his  hostess : 

"  Bring  me,  I  pray  thee,  a  httle  morsel  of  bread  in 
thy  hand." 

If  preachers  would  only  carry  the  same  spirit  of 
consideration  with  them  in  their  pastoral  visiting 
they  would  never  lack  for  a  true  welcome.  Although 
the  Lord  had  sent  Elijah  to  the  widow  with  the  as- 
surance that  she  would  sustain  him,  he  made  no 
greater  demands  upon  her  than  simply  to  supply  his 
immediate  necessity. 

He  didn't  ride  up  with  a  high  head  and  call  for  hot 
coffee  and  chicken  to  begin  with,  and  tell  her  to  send 
her  boy  out  to  put  his  camel  up,  but  only  asked  for  a 
little  bread  and  water  to  take  the  keen  edge  from  his 
appetite,  and  when  a  preacher  gets  to  where  he  is 
willing  to  hve  on  bread  and  water  if  need  be,  rather 
than  leave  the  ministry,  there  is  nothing  to  hinder 
his  preaching  the  Gospel  about  right.  It  never  adds 
anything  to  a  man's  preaching  power  to  require  an 
extra  amount  of  waiting  upon  in  his  pastoral  visiting. 

Notice  also  that  the  prophet  managed  to  get  to 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER   181 

talking  about  the  Lord  before  he  sat  down  to  supper. 
He  didn't  lose  any  time  is  discussing  the  drouth,  or 
the  slim  prospect  there  was  for  crops,  or  in  trying  to 
find  out  how  much  the  widow  knew  about  the  affairs 
of  the  family  in  the  next  house,  but  he  got  right 
down  to  business  for  his  divine  Master  before  his 
hostess  had  put  on  the  kettle  to  prepare  his  supper, 
and  he  made  the  leanness  of  her  pantry  open  the  way 
to  tell  her  some  things  about  the  greatness  and  good- 
ness of  his  God  that  brightened  her  life  for  many  a  day. 

We  ought  never  to  forget  that  our  first  business 
in  life  is  to  be  ambassadors  for  Jesus  Christ,  and  to 
make  Him  known  we  should  watch  for  opportunities 
and  improve  them  with  tact.  Some  preachers  would 
have  been  in  Zarephath  a  week  before  the  widow 
found  out  whether  they  belonged  to  church  or  not. 

It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  there  are  preachers 
who  so  exhaust  the  subject  of  religion  on  Sunday 
that  they  appear  to  avoid  it  all  the  rest  of  the  week. 
Ministers  can  be  found  who  almost  touch  the  stars 
when  they  preach  who  carefully  avoid  the  subject  of 
religion  when  they  visit  the  sick. 

No  matter  where  we  find  Elijah  his  position  at 
that  moment  may  be  studied  with  profit.  See  him  as 
he  stands  on  Mount  Carmel,  strong  and  straight  as  an 
oak,  while  the  storm  gathers  darkly  about  him.  He 
wasn't  afraid  of  provoking  opposition.  He  had 
faith  for  a  great  revival,  and  had  no  fear  that  the 
interest  would  be  killed  by  somebody's  indiscretion 
or  a  change  of  weather.  And  how  plain  his  preach- 
ing was  that  day  to  Ahab : 


182   AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

"  Ye  have  forsaken  the  commandments  of  the  Lord, 
and  thou  hast  followed  Baalim." 

Think  of  a  preacher  speaking  out  in  a  way  as 
clear-cut  as  that  in  our  time  to  the  leading  member  of 
his  official  board.  There  was  no  "  As  it  were,"  or 
"  In  a  degree,"  or  "  So  to  speak,"  about  it,  and  yet 
this  was  the  man  who  was  afterward  chosen  to  be 
lifted  up  bodily  into  heaven.  Isn't  there  something 
here  for  us  preachers  to  think  about,  brethren? 

Wouldn't  it  raise  a  commotion  to  hear  preaching 
as  plain  as  that  in  some  of  our  modern  churches  ? 
Remember  that  Ahab  was  at  the  head  of  things  on  the 
Mount  Carmel  work,  and  his  wife  had  been  running 
the  church  until  she  had  about  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  she  owned  it,  and  yet  the  new  preacher  got  the 
Bible  wide  open  in  his  very  first  sermon. 

The  great  object  of  the  prophet's  preaching  that 
day  was  not  to  advance  his  own  popularity,  or  an- 
swer infidelity — although  the  air  was  full  of  it,  but  to 
bring  down  fire  from  heaven  that  would  burn  up  and 
destroy  idolatrous  unbelief.  He  wasn't  there  to  de- 
fend his  rehgion,  but  to  show  that  God  was  in  it. 

He  didn't  begin  his  meeting  with  a  series  of  dis- 
courses trying  to  prove  that  unbelief  was  a  house 
built  on  the  sand,  but  he  let  his  congrej^ation  know 
at  once  that  he  stood  there  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
of  Hosts,  and  he  did  it,  too,  in  a  way  that  convinced 
them  that  he  expected  wonderful  results.  There 
will  be  no  revival  when  the  people  can  see  clear 
across  the  house  that  the  preacher  isn't  expecting 
much. 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER    183 

When  the  people  had  heard  the  words  of  EHjah, 
and  had  acted  upon  them  by  standing  near  where  the 
blessing  was  to  fall — what  Methodists  would  call 
coming  around  the  altar — he  took  immediate  steps 
to  fulfill  all  the  human  conditions  for  promoting  the 
revival  by  repairing  the  altar  of  the  Lord  that  was 
broken  down.  God  never  sends  any  fire  to  a  broken- 
down  altar.     Let  us  remember  that. 

It  is  folly  to  look  for  any  marked  conversions  in  a 
church  where  there  is  no  true  and  earnest  worship. 
It  would  be  as  reasonable  to  look  for  wheat  where 
nothing  but  chaff  had  been  planted.  Sinners  never 
become  anxious  while  the  church  is  sound  asleep. 
Before  the  fire  will  come  the  broken-down  altar  must 
be  rebuilt.  Pastor  and  people  must  be  very  close  to- 
gether, and  all  looking  straight  up.  Fire  will  never 
fall  from  heaven  until  it  has  a  clean  place  upon  which 
to  strike. 

The  prophets  of  Baal  were  impatient  to  begin  early 
in  the  morning,  without  a  care  as  to  whether  their 
altar  was  in  a  condition  to  receive  the  sacrifice  or  not. 
Mere  professors  are  always  in  a  hurry  to  have  a  pro- 
tracted meeting  over  with.  Like  any  other  disagree- 
able duty  it  cannot  be  finished  too  quickly,  but  the 
great  Carmelite  was  in  no  hurry.  Walking  by  faith 
and  not  by  sight  he  knew  that  he  had  certainty  be- 
fore him,  and  could  afford  to  wait.  He  was  bound 
to  have  things  right  to  begin  with  if  it  took  all  sum- 
mer. Hence,  with  the  greatest  deliberation  and  care 
he  gave  strict  attention  to  all  things  needful,  and  neg- 
lected nothing.     He  looked  after  matters  himself,  and 


184   AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

knew  of  his  own  personal  knowledge  that  no  part  of 
the  work  had  been  slighted. 

He  didn't  appoint  one  committee  to  get  the  stones 
together  and  another  to  lay  them  up,  nor  did  he  depend 
upon  somebody  working  by  the  day  to  dig  the  trench, 
but  he  hung  his  sheepskin  mantle  on  the  nearest  limb, 
rolled  up  his  sleeves  and  went  to  work  himself. 

No  wonder  that  at  the  proper  time  he  could  look 
into  the  sky  and  call  for  fire  with  as  much  confidence 
as  a  child  would  ask  for  bread.  He  knew  that  his 
part  had  been  done  faithfully  and  well,  and  this  gave 
him  courage  to  fold  his  arms  complacently  and  call 
for  cold  salt  water  until  he  wore  the  opposition  clear 
out. 

Another  important  thing  to  notice  is  that  the 
prophet  called  upon  the  Lord  at  the  proper  time  as 
well  as  in  the  proper  place.  He  waited  until  the 
time  of  the  offering  of  the  evening  sacrifice.  Some 
preachers  would  have  felt  like  giving  up  in  discour- 
agement because  the  fire  didn't  come  before  noon, 
and  others  would  have  dismissed  the  meeting  and 
gone  back  down  the  hill,  feeling  sure  that  they  were 
in  the  wrong  business  because  it  didn't  cloud  up  and 
begin  to  thunder  early  in  the  morning.  The  Bible 
makes  it  plain  that  God  has  a  time  for  doing  things 
as  well  as  a  way  of  doing  them,  but  some  folks  never 
seem  to  find  it  out. 

The  preacher  needs  sanctified  common  sense  about 
as  much  as  he  does  religion.  We  must  know  when 
to  introduce  the  subject  of  religion  as  well  as  how  to 
do  it.     God  needs  intelligent  service  in  the  ministry 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER    185 

quite  as  much  as  He  does  blind  loyalty  that  is  willing 
to  go  to  the  stake.  Pounding  the  Bible  and  making 
a  noise  in  church  is  one  thing,  and  winning  men  to 
Christ  is  another. 

Peter  was  made  a  fisher  of  men  quite  as  much  be- 
cause he  had  good  judgment  as  because  he  had  a  big 
heart ;  and  Paul  probably  caught  more  by  his  tact 
than  he  did  by  preaching  all  night.  He  was  able  to 
do  this  because  he  had  learned  some  things  in  the 
making  and  selling  of  tents  that  he  couldn't  learn  at 
the  feet  of  Gamaliel.  It  was  because  he  knew  human 
nature  as  well  as  he  knew  Greek  that  he  didn't  lose 
his  head  at  Athens,  and  it  was  because  he  knew  the 
way  into  a  soldier's  heart  that  he  was  able  to  gain 
converts  in  Caesar's  household.  The  man  who  will 
take  a  crowbar  to  open  an  oyster  has  no  business  in 
the  ministry,  but  he  too  often  gets  there.  Tact  wins 
where  great  gifts  without  it  are  sure  to  fail. 

Some  preachers  whose  hearts  are  full  of  love  fail  in 
their  ministry  because  their  heads  are  not  also  full  of 
practical  wisdom.  The  fact  is,  that  the  more  love  a 
man  has  in  his  heart  the  more  he  needs  brains  in  his 
head.  Unless  he  is  as  wise  as  a  serpent  he  cannot  be 
as  harmless  as  a  dove. 

If  the  old  serpent  in  Eden  had  been  as  ignorant  of 
human  nature  as  some  preachers  are,  I  don't  believe 
there  would  have  been  any  fall.  The  fact  is,  that  the 
man  who  fishes  for  men  must  learn  to  use  all  kinds 
of  means  and  all  kinds  of  bait.  If  we  don't  know  how 
to  do  this  we  are  on  the  wrong  track  if  we  spend  all 
Qur  time  in  the  study  of  books. 


186    AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

There  is  an  occasional  man  in  the  ministry  who 
would  add  greatly  to  his  preaching  power  by  giving 
up  the  making  of  sermons  for  a  while  to  saw  logs  in 
a  lumber  camp,  or  become  a  brakeman  on  some  good 
railroad.  Such  men  have  never  learned  the  impor- 
tant lesson  that  a  man  with  black  hair  is  a  different 
being  altogether  from  one  whose  beard  is  red. 

The  scene  where  Elijah  goes  to  the  mountain  top 
and  puts  his  face  between  his  knees  ought  to  teach 
us  several  things  about  how  to  proceed  when  we 
would  have  a  revival.  The  first  noticeable  thing  is 
that  he  got  as  near  heaven  himself  as  he  could  to 
begin  with. 

The  revival  that  comes  from  God  must  begin  in 
the  preacher's  own  heart.  It  is  impossible  to  warm 
up  the  church  while  there  is  a  freeze  up  in  the  pulpit. 
Until  the  preacher  is  right  with  God  and  filled  with 
the  Spirit,  everybody  in  the  congregation  knows  that 
a  revival  is  not  expected,  but  only  let  the  soul  of  the 
preacher  first  be  warmed  by  heavenly  fire  and  what  a 
difference  it  will  make.  He  will  not  conclude  that  it 
is  not  God's  time  to  work  because  there  is  only  a  hand- 
ful of  people  in  the  house  on  the  opening  night,  and 
it  will  not  dampen  his  ardor  to  see  those  who  try  the 
hardest  to  run  the  church  occupying  back  seats. 
With  every  fresh  disappointment  his  soul  will  cry 
out  with  new  expectation,  •*  Go  again,  look  toward 
the  sea,"  and  he  will  keep  on  praying  and  looking 
until  the  promised  and  expected  storm  of  revival 
comes  in  sight. 

It  seems  clear  that  this  part  of  the  prophet's  history 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER   187 

was  put  in  God's  book  to  teach  us  that  we  have  a 
right  to  count  on  glorious  results,  no  matter  how  dis- 
heartening may  be  the  indifference  and  opposition, 
when  we  know  in  our  souls  that  we  have  done  our 
prayerful  best  and  complied  with  God's  conditions. 

It  would  be  well  in  this  connection  to  remember 
that  Elijah  did  not  look  for  a  drop  of  rain  until  the 
broken-down  altar  had  been  rebuilt,  and  he  had  re- 
stored purity  to  worship  by  the  destruction  of  Baal's 
prophets.  There  is  no  use  in  counting  upon  much 
of  an  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  as  long  as  we  know 
that  our  motives  are  selfish.    , 

The  old  man's  faith  held  firm  because  he  kept 
looking  toward  the  source  of  blessing.  He  didn't 
pay  any  attention  to  the  fact  that  everything  about 
him  was  as  dry  as  preaching,  but  bade  his  servant  to 
keep  on  looking  toward  the  sea  from  which  he  ex- 
pected the  cloud  to  come,  and  as  soon  as  he  knew 
that  one  the  size  of  a  man's  hand  could  be  seen,  he 
knew  that  his  prayer  for  a  great  storm  had  been  an- 
swered. God  had  taught  him  some  lessons  with  the 
widow's  meal  that  he  had  not  forgotten.  Many  of  us 
want  to  see  the  dust  flying  and  the  sky  turning  black 
all  over  before  we  begin  to  count  much  on  results, 
but  with  Elijah  God's  word  for  a  thing  was  enough. 

There  was  no  sense  in  the  prophet  going  on  the 
dead  gallop  before  the  chariot  of  Ahab  down  to 
Jezreel,  and  he  wouldn't  have  done  it  either,  but  for 
the  wonderful  time  he  had  been  having  on  the  top 
of  Mount  Carmel.  He  made  a  fool  of  himself  then, 
just  as  men  do  in  election  times  now,  because  his  head 


188   AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

had  been  so  turned  by  his  great  success  that  he  didn't 
more  than  half  know  what  he  was  about. 

It  was  a  great  waste  of  strength  for  him  to  race 
with  a  rain-storm  through  the  dust  for  seventeen 
miles,  and  he  might  have  been  much  better  employed 
in  other  ways,  but  he  was  so  puffed  up  with  pride 
just  then  that  he  wanted  to  go  into  Jezreel  at  the 
head  of  the  procession,  and  give  the  people  down 
there  a  chance  to  see  for  themselves  what  the  man 
who  could  bring  fire  from  heaven  looked  like. 

This  made  him  forget  God,  and  get  where  divine 
aid  couldn't  reach  him,  and  things  like  that  are  still 
happening  in  a  spiritual  way  to-day.  The  story  of 
Mount  Carmel  one  week,  and  the  juniper  tree  and  the 
cavern  the  next,  is  still  repeating  itself  all  around 
the  world.  The  fact  is,  that  nothing  can  wear  out 
men  of  God  any  faster  than  running  before  the 
chariot  of  Ahab,  but  as  long  as  the  devil  can  some- 
times get  a  preacher  to  forget  the  Lord  and  look  at 
himself,  there  will  be  plenty  of  that  kind  of  racing 
done. 

What  a  contrast  between  the  conduct  of  the  prophet 
when  he  stood  boldly  on  the  mountain  top,  openly 
defying  the  organized  enemies  of  his  God,  and  the 
cowardly  man  who  is  stealing  away  in  the  darkness 
because  an  angry  woman  has  threatened  to  take  his 
life.  He  fails  now  because  he  has  taken  the  campaign 
into  his  own  hands,  and  has  stopped  seeking  guidance 
from  the  Lord.  That  is  why  he  forgets  all  about  the 
past  and  breaks  pell-mell  for  the  wilderness. 

If  he  would  only  stop  for  a  moment  and  think  of 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER   189 

the  years  when  the  ravens  fed  him,  and  when  the 
widow's  meal  and  oil  failed  not,  his  blood  would  soon 
be  filled  with  iron  again,  and  he  would  go  back  and 
tell  Jezebel  to  her  face  that  her  father  had  a  cloven 
hoof.  The  devil  could  never  keep  a  backslider  in 
his  army  over  night  if  he  couldn't  make  him  entirely 
forget  the  past  goodness  of  his  God. 

How  full  of  light  and  hope  the  verses  relating  to 
Elijah  in  the  desert  ought  to  be  for  each  one  of  us. 
God  never  gives  up  a  man  who  has  good  timber  in 
him  simply  because  he  has  made  a  mistake.  What 
a  blessed  thing  that  the  record  of  Peter's  life  didn't 
end  with  the  scene  where  he  denied  his  Lord,  and 
that  Elijah's  grave  was  not  made  under  the  juniper 
tree. 

In  every  case  where  there  is  gold  in  a  man  God 
sticks  to  him  until  he  brings  it  out.  Our  fellow  men 
turn  coldly  away  from  us  when  we  fail  to  accomplish 
the  great  things  we  set  out  to  do,  but  God  never 
does.  When  the  prodigal  got  home  he  found  his 
father  looking  for  him,  but  his  brother  never  expected 
him  to  come  back. 

It  was  a  great  mistake  for  the  prophet  to  go  in 
*'  the  strength  of  that  meat "  forty  days,  although  it 
was  bread  that  had  come  down  from  above.  If  there 
is  any  man  who  needs  to  have  his  meals  with  regu- 
larity it  is  the  one  who  is  working  for  Christ.  As 
long  as  the  prophet  was  having  bread  and  flesh  in 
the  morning,  and  bread  and  flesh  at  night,  his  faith 
was  all  right. 

Whenever  you  find  a  preacher  who  has  lost  his 


190   AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

spiritual  power,  and  has  begun  to  howl  and  growl 
about  the  shortcomings  of  everybody  else,  you  can 
put  it  down  for  a  fact  that  he  has  been  neglecting 
his  Bible  and  his  closet.  The  order  in  the  wilderness 
was  that  the  manna  should  be  gathered  fresh  every 
day,  and  that  is  still  the  divine  requirement. 

Find  a  minister  whose  heart  is  not  in  his  work, 
and  you  find  one  who  has  become  so  much  occu- 
pied with  other  things  that  he  has  no  time  to  pray 
in  secret.  It  may  be  that  one  reason  why  the  Church 
is  so  slow  about  reaching  the  masses  is  that  the  mass 
of  her  preachers  do  not  pray  half  enough.  When 
Jesus  prayed  all  night  the  multitude  sought  Him  in 
the  morning. 

When  the  prophet's  attention  was  fixed  solely 
upon  God  he  was  not  afraid  of  all  the  false  prophets 
Ahab  could  bring  out  against  him,  but  when  he  got 
to  looking  only  at  men  his  blood  turned  to  water  at 
once.  When  the  devil  can  get  a  preacher  to  think 
that  he  is  about  the  only  out-and-out  religious  man 
in  the  county,  he  is  very  well  satisfied  with  his  day's 
work  ;  and  when  we  can't  see  anything  in  other  peo- 
ple that  suits  us,  the  chances  are  that  we  need  a 
revival  in  our  own  hearts. 

The  Lord  showed  Himself  decidedly  in  favor  of  the 
itinerancy  by  the  way  He  handled  Elijah  from  the 
start.  He  knew  His  man  too  well  to  keep  him  too  long 
in  the  same  place.  Without  the  time  limit  it  may 
be  that  the  Carmelite  would  have  dropped  clear  out 
of  sight.  Many  a  man  is  kept  bright  because  the 
Lord  will  not  let  him  get  into  an  easy  corner  and  go 


AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER   191 

to  rust.  By  moving  Elijah  around  the  Lord  ground 
down  some  oi  his  rough  corners  and  made  him  a 
success. 

No  preacher  can  be  judged  correctly  by  what  he 
has  done  in  a  single  place.  The  man  who  falls  down 
flat  in  one  church  may  flourish  like  a  palm  tree  in  the 
next.  The  right  kind  of  a  man  can  always  learn 
something  valuable  from  a  mistake.  He  doesn't  fall 
down  on  the  same  banana  skin  twice.  The  evan- 
gelist Mark  wasn't  much  account  with  Paul,  but  he 
got  along  fine  with  Barnabas,  and  it  may  be  that  had 
Elijah  been  sent  back  to  Jezreel  he  would  not  have 
been  any  braver  in  the  pulpit  than  some  of  the  rest 
of  us. 

It  is  more  than  Hkely  that  the  ministry  and  meth- 
ods of  Elijah  were  much  criticized  by  all  kinds  of 
people,  and  it  may  be  that  other  prophets  scored 
him  without  mercy,  and  pommelled  him  hard  with 
clubs  cut  from  the  juniper  tree  every  chance  they 
got,  but  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  his  minis- 
try was  a  great  success  as  seen  from  where  angels 
look,  for  as  soon  as  a  competent  man  was  found  to 
succeed  him,  he  was  promoted  to  an  appointment  in 
the  city  of  light,  where,  for  aught  we  can  tell  to  the 
contrary,  he  may  have  been  engaged  ever  since  in 
trying  to  tell  sinless  hosts  what  God  is  doing  down 
here  on  the  earth. 

Without  stopping  to  change  his  clothes  he  was 
sent  sweeping  through  the  gates  in  a  jewelled  chariot 
that  blazed  like  fire,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  an- 
nals of  heaven,  as  his  shining  car  swept  over  the  sea 


192   AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  PREACHER 

of  glass,  and  up  through  the  streets  of  transparent 
gold,  the  angels  had  a  chance  to  see  for  themselves 
just  what  a  faithful  veteran  fresh  from  the  front  looked 
hke. 

And  then  centuries  later,  when  redemption  was 
about  to  become  an  established  fact,  by  "  the  decease 
soon  to  be  accomplished  at  Jerusalem,"  and  a  com- 
panion was  wanted  to  journey  with  Moses  on  his 
long-delayed  visit  to  the  Promised  Land,  and  take 
part  in  the  transfiguration  scene,  it  was  the  faithful 
old  circuit  preacher,  who  had  once  been  lost  for  three 
years  in  the  obscurity  of  the  Brook  Cherith,  who  was 
honored  above  all  the  shining  hosts  of  heaven  by  be- 
ing chosen  for  the  glorious  expedition. 

Surely  this  last  and  brightest  view  of  the  prophet 
ought  to  teach  us,  that  on  the  height*s  of  glory  in  the 
ages  to  come,  the  crowning  place  may  be  that  be- 
stowed upon  some  faithful  man  of  God  who  often  had 
obscure  appointments,  and  what  the  world  would  call 
a  hard  way  of  getting  along  while  in  the  flesh. 

May  the  God  of  Elijah  give  us  all  a  fresh  inspira- 
tion, by  the  time  we  have  been  spending  with  the 
faithful  Tishbite,  to  be  more  unselfishly  in  earnest  in 
our  Master's  service. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Date 

Due 

mf      sj          \i 

i 

^^2.  ■? 

S  '^^^ 

^ 

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